How To Handle Rejection In College

College is great. You get to do all these things that you didn't have the chance to do in high school. Unfortunately, you also have to apply for those things... which means you'll get rejected. At least once. I personally got rejected about fifteen times because I'm talentless and a little too optimistic.

At first, I took it really hard. Since I refused to do anything in high school that could possibly lead to me being rejected, I've never really dealt with people saying no to me. So when I got my first email that said "Sorry, we don't want you, you kind of suck," I curled in my bed and pretended that they sent it to the wrong person.

I told myself that there were a bunch of people trying out, and that it wasn't because I was bad, it was because they really didn't have enough room for me. But after several more rejections (two more from the other A Capella groups alone), I decided something.

It's okay to suck.

Cue the montage that shows how much personal growth I've gone through.

Here's an email I received from Her Campus, a writing organization. Evidence that I'm sub-par when it comes to writing (But, as Michael from "The Office" points out, it's good to be sub-par (when playing golf)).

But accepting that it's okay to suck means you don't have to fear rejection. To me, rejection is just a way for me to confirm that I'm not as good as other people. Who cares? Like, of course I'm not as good as other people. I've never practiced writing, I've never had a singing lesson, I don't like structuring essays in a professional manner (the sole reason I got rejected from being a Newcomb Scholar, I'm sure).

Plus, you still get to enjoy being accepted to things. I was really excited that my application got accepted Tulane Alternative Breaks. Turns out everyone got accepted, but it's fine.

So can we all just relax a little? I don't need to be better than anyone else. And the less I care about whether or not I get rejected, the more comfortable I feel applying to things, which is really important.

So, congrats on reading my article. You all suck.