Ten weeks after sending off the application to grad school, including 2 weeks of anxious waiting and roller-coaster cycling of hopefulness and hopelessness, the first result I got back is a rejection. How to handle a rejection? You don’t, you just ignore it. It wasn’t a bad moment, to be honest. In some way it was relieving, no more waiting from that school. It’s been restless for the last two weeks. I’ve heard friends getting acceptance and rejection, I’ve thought about the embarrassment, and the choices I have in the worst scenario. Switching to med school would take at least one year to study for the MCAT, another to apply and hang around worthlessly, another 4 in grad school (in the case of acceptance), perhaps 2-3 years of residency (if graduated), which totals to 8-9 years, about the same time length to professorship (if everything goes well). Or I could be a bum, but Chris had assured me that I wouldn’t make it. Judging from my GRE scores, I have little belief that my MCAT score would be impressive, multiple choice tests and I aren’t buddies.
But, those were just negative thoughts in the dark hours. I still have classes, movies, and chocolate for self-indulgence. And all the cheesy appreciation for the support from parents and professors, which I consider quite personal(ly valuable) and would spare you from. However, I will disclose my other personal stuff, which has to do with chocolate. Thanks to Mudpie, I’m now racing with time in consuming 9 bars of chocolate, or 22.7 oz (645 g) of chocolate liquor, water-filtered beet sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla, and flavors. It will help you overcome any depression initiated by academics. So here goes.
Zebra (70% cocoa, dark chocolate with orange): feel smooth, aromatic right after opening the wrapper, a little bitter, easily melt in hand, not as orange as expected, the bitterness is not noticeable when let melt in mouth. No orange peel pieces visible like Valrhona’s dark with orange. Score: 7/10.
Koala (70%, smooth dark with cherry): same bitterness with subtle sweet from cherry, almost unnoticeable taste of cherry except for the smell, pleasant, like lying on the grass at night, a very genteel experience suitable for those who don’t like dark but have to eat it anyway. Score: 7.5/10. On second thought, it’s like talking to an old man, there’s some grumpy bitterness, but there is definitely something sweet and cute.
Lion (35%, smooth milk chocolate): definitely a little too sweet, better to let melt on your tongue than to chew, as the sugar splash is intense. Maybe I’m just too accustomed to dark chocolate. The silky feel makes it reside a level above Hershey’s. Score:6/10 for perfect achievement in ordinary. Suitable for unadventurous nibblers.
Dolphin (48%, milk chocolate with cherry): pieces of cherries inside, do not melt on hand, firm, confident, lingering, suave, take a bite and you’d feel like you’re bathed in milk and wrapped in velvet. Very sensational, yet very assertive. Perfect touch. Score: 9/10.
The Endangered Species chocolate producers donate 10% of the net profits to help species and habitat, so their taste is moved up a notch for me. My ambition is to try all of their collection, to collect for myself the wrappers with animals and their story inside. I’ve also mastered the skill of rewrapping the bars. They look like new.
Next on Down the Aisles: more Endangered Species Chocolate
DISCLAIMER: I received no free product or monetary gift in exchange for this review.
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