Hello to all prospective applicants and college-bound children alike! I’m sure that many of you seniors have received all your decisions and committed already. For some of you, it may be a dream come true. For others, not what you have hoped for. Now, I want to tell you why being rejected from College X is not as bad as you may think. Allow me to share my story.
I’ve always been a dreamer, perhaps naively so. I’m used to scrolling through the joyful faces of acceptance videos, re-imagining myself in their places. I watched day-in-my-life vlogs religiously, falling in love with beautiful campuses, and their quirky student body. I looked up all the best dining halls, all the tourists attractions, every library and dorm pic I could find. I knew that if I got into College X, I could meet some great people, get a great education, and have the time of my life.
I had already received my safety acceptances, and some mid-tier acceptances that I didn’t think much of. I was on a roll, counting on the luck to push on for just a few more schools.
Then I got rejected from all the colleges that (at the time) “really mattered”. Suddenly, I felt like all the work I had done was for nothing. All the sleepless nights studying for that make-or-break test, the training for tournaments and competitions, the hours of extra work that came with student government; I felt like I wasted all my effort just to get into a school that wasn’t even my first, second, or third choice! Even worse, I felt like if I had just gone one extra step, that maybe I could have had my dreams come true after all.
I’m sure that we’ve all shared some ‘what-ifs’ throughout this process; an essay worded better, a recommendation with more passion, an extracurricular with more prestige, a higher score on that exam.
And let me tell you something: that extra step really might have gotten you in.
But that, my friends, is a good thing.
Going to your dream school won’t guarantee you anything, but it does open opportunities. The same goes with all of you. You can open your own opportunities by going one more step, and you don’t need College X to do it. You may not be able to turn back the clock on your high school years, but you can do so much with these next four.
Those teachers that you could have been closer with, those grades that could have been higher, those clubs you could have joined; it’s your chance to do that now. You can turn your rejection into College X’s very own regret by becoming the best person you can be. All these ‘what-ifs’ are showing you that it’s in your power to become even better than before.
Someone just couldn’t see that potential through a piece of paper.
