Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size This story is part of the July 21 edition of Sunday Life.
See all 13 stories . In March this year, Brooke Boney was staying with her younger brother in her home town of Muswellbrook, in the NSW Hunter Valley, killing time as she endured the hellish limbo that comes when you’re really, really sweating on hearing from someone. Like many of us, she was familiar with this feeling in the context of her love life.
But Boney wasn’t waiting for a prospective boyfriend to get in touch. She was hanging out to hear whether Oxford University had accepted her application to its Master of Public Policy program. “The university says it’ll take eight to 10 weeks after you’ve sent in the application,” Boney recounts over coffee a few months later.
“During that period I was waking up in the middle of the night to refresh my email. Every time I heard my phone ping, it was like ..
. you know when you’ve got a crush on someone and you’re waiting to hear back? My heart rate would rise every time.” Such anticipation can make a person near crazy.
Especially when that person is a proud Kamilaroi woman who grew up as one of six kids raised by their mum in housing commission. A person whose grandparents weren’t allowed into town during daylight because they were black. Th.