During the days leading up to my fourth birthday, I had a life-changing epiphany: I really liked receiving mail. I began to view the mailbox as a treasure chest, which led to riveting treasure hunts that involved going on a quest from the top of my driveway to the mailbox — as soon as I arrived home from preschool — to dig through stacks of papers and envelopes for potentially important mail addressed to me.
Countless disappointing mail openings later, my enthusiasm for mail has never again reached that level, so as you can imagine, I approached opening the letter from the “Peres Leadership Program” with skepticism. When I immediately recognized a long-term friend of mine on the cover, I was intrigued; when I opened the envelope and read the bios of the mentors, I was impressed; and when my mom walked in the room, I was asking her if I could look into applying.
