The television in my room was on but I paid no attention to it. I was laying in my bed too busy telling myself that I felt fine. My head pounded a constant rhythmic beat that I couldn’t ignore. My eyelids felt like a million pounds. As each second went by I felt myself fade deeper into unconsciousness.
My eyes shot open. The ring from the phone shot directly in through my ears, and penetrated my brain. I quickly answered just to cease the noise. It took a forceful exhale to push a soft “Hello?” from my throat.
“Hello, is this Jolena?”
“Yes.”
“This is your nurse.”
It was a Saturday. There would only be one reason a doctor’s office would call on a Saturday. I braced myself for her next words-words that I know I will believe not to be true, words that will ruin my life, words that I never could be ready to hear.
“Are you still there Jolena?”
“Yes.”
“The test results came back, and you have tested positive for Mono.”
I felt the tears from my eyes roll down slowly, now faster. A million thoughts crashed into my head. No more lacrosse. No more friends. Pain. Tiredness. The nurse rambled on about things I was restricted from, things I should expect. But I heard none of it.
“Jolena, are you there? Jolena?”
The dialogue is powerful here. And there are a lot of imagined details you might work with as you write the essay. For example, you might explore something like, I imagine there were tears, a million thoughts crashing into her mind. No more lacrosse. No more friends. Pain. Tiredness.
Good work!