As a first year walking around the activities fair, the world seems to be your oyster. Not only are you on your own for the first time in your life, but all of these people are begging for your attention! Yes, you, the person who just arrived here with no ideas and curiosity about everything. Second, third, even fourth year students call at you in the crowd, asking about your interests and your skills. You feel on top of the world as each table seems more interesting than the last. Singing groups, athletics, volunteering, mentoring, you name it, the activities fair had at least three different organization devoted specifically to whatever activity you sought. After an hour or so spent walking through the heat, you end up with more flyers, leaflets, and club swag than you could possibly ever use. With all of these options, everything seems to be going swimmingly, if you do say so yourself.
That feeling does not last too long. As you shuffle through the papers, you realize that you need to do applications for just about everything. Not little ones that just require a name and grade level, but real ones, with deep questions about why you truly want to be involved with that particular activity. College application level essays seem to be required for every single activity here on Grounds. It’s stressful, but you work and work until finally you are able to turn them in with a gigantic sigh of relief. Next comes interviews or results; no matter what happens, at least it’s over, right?
Then, hopefully things go well. Maybe you’re called in for an interview, maybe just accepted on the application alone, but I hope that you were accepted into whatever student organizations you wanted. However, most first year students experienced some form of rejection from the activity they may have wanted most. For those of us in the class of 2020, this was a bit of a wake up call. In the entirety of our high school careers, most of us made our way successfully through whatever we chose to do. We were the best and the brightest- which is how we ended up here at UVA. And that initial feeling of excellence can easily disappear when two or three clubs say thanks, but no thanks. Being rejected for the first time is never easy, but it can be easily tough when it comes in the first few weeks of the year. Most first years are still trying to find their footing, their friends, their routine in life. It’s hard not to feel down when your normal support system of family, friends, and maybe a pet or two isn’t there.
But have no fear. Students here at UVA, for better or for worse, have been getting rejected since the University first opened its doors. What makes this university so great is that its students have the ability to bounce back. Many upperclassmen will tell you all about how they had to tryout, interview, audition two or three times in order to get what they really wanted. Whether the activity you wanted to be in was an acapella group or the University Judiciary Council, you can try to join again next semester or next year. Although being told no will never get easier, being a UVA student means being willing to keep going in spite of adversity, in spite of being told you can’t do something. If you really love something, make it happen. It may not work out right this very instant, but with four years ahead of you, you can do it. Generations of students here on Grounds can confirm it.
So take a deep breath. Wallow for a few minutes in how much it sucks to be told no and then move on to the next great thing you are capable of doing.