At the beginning of this summer, I struggled. After receiving twenty-seven internship rejection letters-- believe me, I wish I were over-exaggerating-- I begrudgingly enacted my Plan B, going to class every day instead of to my dream job.
I'll be honest with you, I allowed myself to wallow in self-pity for a few weeks. I felt as if this class was a daily reminder of how I failed my goals. Instead of living my dreams, I had to ultimately settle with an alternative that, at the time, felt like an obstacle in the way of my transition into adulthood.
After a few weeks of staring at my screen in class, completely ignoring everything and everyone surrounding me while trying to perfect my cover letter and resume for another round of internship applications, this time for the Fall semester, I had what you might call an epiphany.
I reached out for help editing and submitting the final draft of my application package to my dream Fall internship and began interacting with the class as a way to strengthen and improve my social connections and public speaking skills.
Even though the class focused on aspects of public speaking I was already aware of from past communication courses, it was structured similarly to a public speaking class I took as a freshman. I took the opportunity to evaluate myself and how much I improved from naive underclassmen to a more confident upperclassman.
After receiving not one, but TWO interview offers for the Fall, I sat down and took some time to reflect on the past five weeks of going to class. You know the irony of it all? I actually did learn a valuable lesson even though at first, the class seemed like it would offer me nothing.
I learned that anyone could take anything, whether or not it aligns with your initial plan or not, and get as much out of the situation as the effort they put into it. In the past, whenever I heard similar advice, I always seemed to brush it off. After all, ninety percent of what I set my mind to do I somehow accomplished or moved on since it was one option out of a plethora of options to consider.
As you become an upperclassman in college, options on how to spend your summer seem to dwindle. You either take classes to make your Senior year tolerable, work (either at a job or in an internship), or spend time with family and friends.
Throughout my childhood, I was rarely faced with a do or die situation. If something didn't work out, I had three other options that sounded as appealing. In fact, I would have a hard time making decisions because there was always more than one offer that sounded equally appealing.
But real life is different. Opportunities act more as building blocks to a successful career instead of just picking the option that seems most fun out of the litter. When you fail at getting accepted for one of those crucial building blocks (like internships), you are faced with a serious case of FOMO. Suddenly, your world seems out of your control and if you're a control freak like me, your life just turned into your personal nightmare after twenty-seven rejection letters.
The trick to moving on and succeeding despite your failures? Learn from your mistakes, implement constructive criticism, and never, ever, EVER take "no" for an answer.
