Rejection sucks.
No matter how many times you’ve been told “it’s not you, it’s me” (or any other cliché), it never does much to cushion the blow. My mom always told me, “It’s impossible to get everyone to like you,” but it sure would make my life a hell of a lot easier if that wasn’t so inevitably true. When I first began my freshman year at Chapman, I was convinced that I would be transferring to the school that I really wanted to be at soon thereafter. Little did I know at the time, that plan would soon be crushed when I opened up my rejection letter. Over the last six months, I have been forced to face the rejection of my dream school, and with a little time and perspective, I came to realize that this was not the soul-crushing experience that I initially felt.
Aaron Hotchner once said “Bad news slows us down for a while and then we move on, but hope is paralyzing.” However intensely dramatized that might sound, the sentiment epitomizes my experiences in the realm of rejection. I was living with the hope of a potentially happier future, which blinded me to the readily available opportunities for present happiness. I had unknowingly closed myself off from countless people and experiences because I was living in the hope of the thought of something better. Although at the time I would undoubtedly disagree, receiving that rejection was necessary to move past the sudden hopelessness I felt. I was forced to reevaluate where I was and open myself up to the experiences that I was previously so uninterested in. I had let go of one hope and latch onto the hope of finding new and exciting opportunities right where I was. Never in my life have I felt more liberated than when facing the ugly head of rejection.
So yes, rejection does suck, but with a little time and perspective, it is also incredibly liberating.