Results are in. After weeks of waiting, the decision that will decide whether you like yourself for the next five days is sitting pretty in your inbox. Your organs have already become a marching band inside of you at the mere thought of moving your mouse to check your status. Finally, courage kicks in, and running purely off of adrenaline, the email is opened. Blood chills throughout your body in that one second before the page loads for you to see ... rejected. “Sorry, try again next year,” “Unfortunately ...,” “You’re a winner for even submitting!” No matter how sweet they set it, you know it’s nothing but another rejection to add to your resume.

For those around our age (17 or so), these letters seem to come as often as the sunrise, whether it be from clubs, competitions, or colleges. We know we aren’t the only ones submitting, yet for some reason, we feel like the only ones being rejected. It’s the loneliest feeling being surrounded by “Mr. I Got In!” and “Mrs. Officially Five Times Published!” when you know you have a “There were a lot of applicants this year so ...” in your pocket, but I hope you hear me when I say you’re not alone. I hope even if you stop reading right here because it got too corny or clichéd that you know these rejections don’t define you or what you can do. It’s okay to feel hurt, give yourself that time to sulk. Give it a day – heck, give it a week. Just remember that the hurt is not forever. You’ve gotten through it before and, even if it feels like one more rejection will do you in, you’ll get through it again. Learn from it if you want, but sometimes, it’s okay to just lose. A loss doesn’t always have to be some sort of stepping stone to something bigger. Sometimes, we just lose. I wish that was more accepted. Getting caught up in how we’re gonna flip and reverse every loss prevents us from recovering and moving on. I’m not saying don’t learn from your mistakes, but don’t beat yourself up about it. Sometimes it’s okay to just say, “Okay” and move on. You’re still worthy of free time and food and sleep. Destroying yourself after every loss doesn’t do you any good.
Destroying yourself after something so natural as losing is just wicked! Wicked because we’re all losers. We’re all rejects. We all hide from this reality but maybe it’s time we start shouting it from the rooftops.

Signed,

A Certified Reject