"Ugh, why did I even agree to come to college?" asked Mildred to no one in particular. She was all alone in her dorm that night, hunched over her laptop, exhausted from typing her term paper and studying for her final exams.
"I mean, freshman year wasn't that hard, but I think I signed up for way too many classes this time ... and what for? I wanna be a artist! I really don't need to know all this just to paint landscapes."
Mildred's grandmother, for whom she was named, had lived her whole life in desperate poverty and raised her daughter to expect better. Mildred's mother had grown up into a successful banker and now insisted on sending her own daughter to college, not just for four years, but until she got a master's degree at least. Even if she did major in art and stick with her dream of being a painter, she'd come out with a well-rounded education and a battle-tested work ethic, so hopefully she would never have to raise a family on week-old bread out of the dumpster like her namesake had.
Unfortunately, there were evenings when Mildred's work ethic threatened to raise the white flag, and this was one of them. She glanced back at her history class writing prompt one more time ...
"What are some factors that let to the rapid spread of Buddhism in Japan alongside the preexisting Shinto spirituality following its introduction to the islands? Aaggh--!" She then leaned over, rubbing her forehead. "I really wish I didn't have to read up on all this nonsense. I wish I could just already know the answers when people ask me things."
She eventually turned off her computer and went to bed. It was almost 4 AM. She'd probably be too exhausted for her 8:30 math test to get any of the answers right, even though she'd spent 3 hours cramming before midnight. Little did Mildred know that a certain alignment of planets had been triggered by her off-hand comments. In a few hours, she would find that her wish had come true.