“I felt so worthless.” Frank Bruni’s article “How to Survive the College Admissions Madness”, knew exactly how I felt. After receiving my first rejection letter last Monday, from Washington University in St. Louis - one of the schools I had so tightly tied my hopes to - I felt worthless. What irked me wasn't the rejection itself, it was the fact that - like any rejection letter - there was no explanation as to why. |
This thought process went on for almost an hour; I kept going back and forth on what it could have been, what I did wrong, and yup... that same feeling of worthless remained. But between then and today, I realized that the reason doesn't really matter to me anymore. I'm ok with the rejection now.
The story of Peter and his friend is no anomaly, however; Mr. Bruni makes that clear, and I'd have to agree. The people being accepted to universities like Yale and Stanford are maybe two students in a grade of 100. But the number of people who end up being successful... that goes far beyond a fraction of two.
My Wash U application may have made no distinction when placed next to the application of thousands of others, but once again, I’m ok with that now. Because the knowledge that I've gained from all of my experiences these past few years define me far more than a rejection letter, and I see college as an opportunity to grow like-wise experiences, regardless of where I end up.
After getting rejected from Wash U, someone told me something that I think is worth sharing; it sums up this entry in a sentence: