Remember the end of senior year, when college admission decisions were coming out? Chances are, at least once, you were let down by a rejection letter or an insufficient amount of financial aid to go to one of the schools you had your heart set on. The rejection hurt. Maybe you saw other people around you getting into the same school that said no to you, and you couldn’t help but wonder why you weren’t good enough.
Fast forward to whatever point you’re now at in your college career. Chances are, you haven’t thought about that school that said no to you in who knows how long, because now, you’re having the time of your life at your school. Now, you can’t imagine yourself anywhere else, and you don’t want to be anywhere else. Everything has worked itself out, and that rejection that seemed so hurtful however long ago is now just a vague memory in your journey to where you are today.
However, now that you’re experiencing this new chapter in life, you’ve probably also begun to start trying to get into different things at your school: clubs, jobs, internships, you name it; and maybe some of these haven’t been working out. Just like senior year, it hurts all over again, it feels personal all over again, and it seems like a huge deal all over again. Having personally had a pretty unfortunate week in the realm of things not working out, I took a step back and thought about senior year in order to remind myself: I’m going to be okay, and so are you.
Think of it like this: more likely than not, you’ve ended up at your school because it’s full of people who are ready for a similar environment, academically and socially. The amount of people who are “like” you in terms of interests and ambitions is bound to be more concentrated than it was back home. With that taken into consideration, also consider the fact that oftentimes, the selection process for different activities goes far beyond the simple idea of “who is the most qualified.” Tons of other factors from demographics to who knows who to who read your application all come into play as well. The sad truth is that, even if you are qualified, some things just aren’t going to work out, but just like senior year, eventually, something will, and it’s going to be great.
Being resilient isn’t the easiest option. Sometimes, you need to have a few days to be upset and feel bad for yourself. Nobody likes getting told they can’t do something, but how you react to rejection is way more important than the rejection itself. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and remind yourself that you’re here for a reason, and if one group can’t see that, another one will. The only way to make sure nothing works out is to stop trying, so whether it takes a few tries or fifty, don’t give up.
Eventually, you’re going to find your thing, and you’ll wonder why you were ever concerned about the jobs or the clubs or the internships that said no to you before in the first place. Just like that irrelevant school that said no to you senior year, it’ll be a mere blip on the radar, and you’ll be killing it at whatever you end up doing. Don’t stop believing in yourself. You got this.
