14 June and Symbiosis Law School.

14th June, 2012. It isn't just another date. It's a milestone. 

It brings back a lot of memories. The good ones and the bad ones. 

See, that's the thing with memories. You cannot relive the good ones without reviving the bad ones which you thought you had so carefully suppressed into non-existence. 

But that's where you go wrong. You cannot simply make them go away, and sometimes all they need is just a smallest of a trigger to come rushing back. 

Like say, looking at the date.

But to tell you what happened on 14 June, I'd have to take you further back in time to somewhere in early May 2012. SET 2012. For the legally challenged, it goes by the name Symbiosis Entrance Test. 

The moment of euphoria when I saw that I had cleared the written test and had been selected for the GDPI. That frantic last minute shopping for formal wear and formal shoes for the interview.

It's still as vivid as though it happened just a month ago. The nervousness. The anxiety building up as I saw thousands of students there, waiting to show off how brilliant they were. 

And me? I stood there. Awkward and out of place. I had convinced myself that I absolutely did not stand the chance to be here. I mean, look at them. Their CVs were bursting with certificates. They were oozing confidence. 

And what had I done throughout my life while these people were busy collecting certificates? What proof of extraordinary brilliance did I have to blow the interviewers' minds? Nada.

The GD and the PI went by in a flash, and there I was, sitting at home, awaiting the first list.

05 June 2012.

The list was out. I read it thrice. I wasn't there.

The waiting list. I wasn't in there either.

This college had no place for me. 

I cried. For days. I sobbed and cried like a baby. Reviewed my options. I had already messed up CLAT (again, that's 'Common Law Admission Test' for the ignoramuses.) What other option did I have? Nada.

I had completely given up the hope. 

And then, came 14 June 2012.

The day the second list came out. I did not bother to check. I wasn't in the waiting list (which was pretty long, mind you) and there was simply no point in having it rubbed in my face that I didn't deserve to go to a law school.

So instead, I spent the whole afternoon watching Hannah Montana. (Yes, I watch Hannah Montana. And I abso-fucking-lutely love it.)

And then I got a call, from dad.

"YOU'RE IN THE SECOND LIST!" he screamed in the phone. 

I was numb. Was I? No, no. There had to be some mistake. How could I?

Was he kidding me? Or was this the college's idea of playing some sick sadistic joke?

I checked their website. I read their acceptance letter. Once. Twice. Thrice. 

I was... in?

How?

I still do not have the answer to that how, but somehow, I was.

It's been a year now. And the memories of all the nights (and days, and mornings, and afternoons, and evenings, you get the gist) that I cried come surging back. But they don't make me sad anymore. They only make me value what I have now, even more. 

Yes, I do have my fair share of days when I curse the college. But that's mostly when I suck at the assignments. 

Symbi has watched and helped me grow as a person. It made me confident, And it gave me the most important lesson. That I was as good as those thousands of students with their folders overflowing with certificates.

14 June reminds me, that underestimating myself would be the biggest injustice I'd do to myself.