American students spend two or more years spent thumbing through "Princeton Review" guidebooks, endlessly preparing for the SAT and/or ACT, and going on grueling road trips to countless campuses...the college admissions process is harrowing, to say the least.

Thankfully, I have been free from these pre-collegiate concerns for well over a year now and have gained enough distance and hindsight to be able to share a bit of wisdom on the subject of college admissions; namely, dealing with the aftermath: rejections and acceptances.

For those that knew junior and senior me, there was rarely a conversation when I didn't bring up the name of a certain school. It was as if I had just recently fallen in love and I couldn't stop saying the name of my beloved, or that I was a mother talking about the loveliness of her child.

In complete honesty, I had romanticized a location so severely in my desperate search for the Perfect College that I was foolishly incapable of imagining myself going anywhere else--something that led to me not applying to enough schools that would have been good fits for me and left me living in the home state that I had been yearning to escape for as long as I can recall.

I had gone through two series of acceptance anticipations from this school; the first in December as I was deferred from Early Decision to be sorted through again that following spring. I waited, anxiously, for over seven months simply to be rejected by a robotic, impersonal email.

I was absolutely shattered. I cried so vehemently that my sobs were stifled only by a severe nosebleed.

I am, undoubtedly, one of thousands of students who have to undergo this egregious process where passion and intelligence of individuals is overshadowed by the lack of a perfect standardized test score and outlandish extracurricular activities.

The thing is, we get through it. The majority of us, the lucky ones, end up at institutions that they not only receive an incredible education from, but where we can thrive.

I am fortunate to be at the university that I am at now, where I have taken advantage of every opportunity that has presented itself to me and where I am, indeed, thriving.

Just as any other instance of unrequited love, I have certainly become a bit bitter (after enough time) towards the one that caused me to feel inadequate and unwanted. Now, like anyone who flaunts their new-found happiness at an ex, I'm keeping my head high and drive as fervent for success as ever.

And for the apparel from the school I was rejected from? Damn skippy I still wear it. It's a reminder to myself to keep going, keep grounded, and achieve everything that some admissions officer thought I wasn't capable of.

Use your rejections as nothing but fuel for a life of learning and actualization.

You are worthy. You will always be worthy.