We upload my final supplement. I am going to do this, I think. It is October 29, two days until November 1, the Mount Rushmore of college deadlines.

I look over the final application and arrive at the “Signature” section. I understand this, certify that, acknowledge this and affirm that. Check, check, check, and check. I am typing my name. Anna Hod—. Our Internet connection is lost.

I let out an overdramatic “No!” as my mother shakes her head and tells me I should have done this earlier. I tell her I was asleep earlier, in the midst of my REM cycle. She tells me I should have woken up and gone straight to work. Before I can escalate our banter, she leaves. I remain seated in my kitchen eating chocolate-covered almonds, wondering how I am going to find an Internet connection to submit my applications. Then the lights in my house go out and a new level of panic sets in.

As a senior at Newtown High School, I want three things: To get into my first choice college (Go Syracuse!), to graduate high school as soon as possible, and to achieve high honors in my classes to avoid taking finals at the end of the year. With this winter storm, two of my greatest wishes have been thrust out the window faster than the cold that settled in my house during the power outage (it got down to 35 degrees).

The storm put up a massive obstacle for many high school seniors in Newtown. Days before one of the major college deadlines for early action and early decision applicants, we lost our Internet connections, our heat, and our sanity.

Liv Rowley, a fellow senior at NHS, was prepared to apply early decision to a college, a binding agreement requiring her to attend if accepted. However, Liv had saved the necessary documents to apply on her desktop computer. Therefore, when the storm hit Newtown, she was unable to access them.

“There is nothing more horrifying than watching your college essay disappear before your eyes as you put the finishing touches on it,” Liv explained. “The application is ready to be sent out, the supplements and recommendations taken care of, the application fee paid, the essay written, and now just to fix a few grammatical errors. You are so close to the finish line — the application almost sent — when everything goes dark.”

This was the situation facing Liv, and many other seniors, when the storm hit Newtown.

“For months I had labored to make my application perfect, beautiful, stellar, and tonight was supposed to be the night where I kissed it good luck and sent it off,” Liv said.

However, after her father discovered a small, radio-sized generator in her garage, Liv was able to turn on her computer and “rescue” her college essay.

“We didn’t know how much the generator was capable of powering, or for how long, so when we plugged it in, I got right to work,” Liv said. “Log in, open the docs, put it on the flash drive, and then, turn it off! Thus, the essay was saved.”

 From there, Liv went with her father to his workplace in Stamford, connected to its wireless Internet connection on a family laptop, and was able to submit her college applications, rescued essay and all.

Like Liv, I was able to apply on time, after locating an Internet connection in New York in my mother’s office. Despite much angst over meeting the deadline, I have applied. Now, I wait.

The week of the storm, my patience wore thin just as it did for hundreds of thousands of others throughout Connecticut. With heat lost and aggravation gained and my desire to graduate at an all-time high, I ironically held the deepest desire to return to school. I wanted to face the tests I have ahead to get one step closer to completing my senior year courses and accepting my diploma on June 21 (subject to change, seeing as it’s not even winter yet and we have already received our first major snowstorm).

Without a doubt, Connecticut seniors will never forget the historic storm that came at the most inopportune moment.

(Anna Hodge is a senior at Newtown High School. Her writing accomplishments include writing for the high school’s Hawkeye and The Newtown Bee.)