The person who remembers what you were waiting to hear makes the news feel less solitary.

Most waiting is carried privately. You mention the test, the interview, the decision once, and then everyone gets on with their lives, so the day the answer arrives you are usually holding it alone. Someone who remembered the date turns a solitary moment into a shared one, and the news becomes an event with a witness.

Write down two things other people are waiting on and the rough week they expect to know. Ask them then, without being asked to, and take whatever comes back, good or otherwise.