Picture both answers while you wait. Realizing you’d survive either one takes the edge off.

Dread usually lives in the blank space where an answer should be, not in the answers themselves. When you actually imagine the no, it tends to arrive with an ordinary Tuesday after it, a next step, and a version of you still standing. Running that film all the way through shrinks the thing to a normal size.

While you are waiting on something, write two short lines: what next week looks like if yes, and what it looks like if no. Keep both honest and both plain. Notice that you can describe either one.