Personal Narrative: How Does One Accept Rejection

How does one accept rejection? The thing you wanted the most, you do not get. You have worked so hard over all of the years and you were still not good enough to get the one thing you worked for. The sound of the word, re-ject-tion, skin crawling, high anxiety. Rejection is one thing many people fear. Until it finally comes. Everything changes. All of the plans you made quickly vanish. Steady panic, heaving breathing, small acceptation. A time I faced failure was not getting into Washu, I learned a lot from this experience and it changed a lot of my college plans for the better.

Having a dream university is a difficult thing. You have your eyes on it and just it. It causes one to have zero interest in any other school. Mine was Washington

University in St.Louis. I had my mind set on it, my heart was latched. I had the opportunity to work on campus the summer before my senior year, being able to see all of the campus and facilities was an incredible experience. Being there everyday gave me the college vibe, which was something I have never felt before. By the end of the summer I was determined that I would attend the school year 2017-2018 there. I immediately started looking online for all of the requirements to attend and how to apply.
I started my application for Washington University during the summer before I started my senior year so I could make sure it was perfect.

Applying to an ivy league school, such as Washington University, requires the common application, which has a big essay that one has to attach to their application. Writing this big piece was the biggest challenge for me, I decided to write about my parents situation in the United States and how they migrated here from Mexico when I was five years old. Explaining how your life is different while yet so many people’s families have done the same thing as yours is a difficult task. I re-wrote my essay seven times before I attached it to my applications. When I sent my application to Washington University I also sent the exact application to about 12 other schools, I got admitted to 10 of those while one still has not got back to me. I was really confident in getting in and was sure I would be apart of WashU’s graduating class of 2021. On December 9th, 2016 I opened my email to find that I was rejected into my dream university, I truly did not know how to react. For the most part I was not upset, which shook me. A little part of me was upset but I instantly felt like I did not get into that school for a reason. It changed all of my plans, on staying close to home, the financial needs for college, my thoughts on my major. Nothing more could have

changed.
This failure in my life has changed so much for my future that I already thought I had figured out. The entire time I was focused on WashU I ignored so many other colleges that were great schools. I got great financial aid from some schools and I did not even pay attention to how exciting that was for me. Staying so close to Saint Louis was something that I was not really planning for, I wanted to branch out of this city. The younger me wanted to experience a new place with completely new people, but while I had my mind made up with WashU I totally forgot about that dream that I wanted. Getting rejected made me snap back into it, It refocused me to remembering what I really wanted since the start. I instantly thought back to my favorite quote which says “Never give up what you want most for what you want right now” (Neal A. Maxwell). I was so caught up on getting into an ivy league school that I forgot who I was, this experience brought me back to my reality and dreams.
Rejection is something that everyone tries to stay away from. People try to live their life perfectly and want no mistakes. This time of failure for me taught me so much on myself, I was going for something that I really did not want. I almost let everything that I have wanted for my education for a long time get ruined for something that I just wanted right now. I still love Washington University, and will continue my internship there this upcoming summer but I realized that it is not the school for me. Those falls that one goes through are worth it, they learn so much about something they really wanted.