Thirteen

04| Rejection, Failure

Today, I'll be writing about a topic that no one really likes to talk about, Rejection! I have experienced rejection before, I feel like if I would've never experienced it, I would've never had motivation or inspiration.

Now rejection comes in many different forms, whether it's a breakup or getting rejected from schools (like my case) or friendships. I think everyone who goes through any form of rejection knows that it doesn't feel good. You feel disappointed in yourself and you start to wonder what was wrong with you that made someone reject you. The truth is that if you have the right mindset and work smart then you'll be successful no matter what. I have a quote that refers to that. "When the need to succeed is as bad as the need to breathe, then you'll be successful." ~Eric Thomas. What this quote means to me is, you may not be certain on what paths you'll take or what turns you'll make but if you are determined enough, you will become successful in the end.

So a personal experience of mine where I was rejected happened when I was in fifth grade and got rejected from a program for my middle school years and I was devastated. I knew that my family wasn't rich, so I was convinced that the only way for me to attend college was if I got into that program. I remember wondering what was wrong with me to cause them to reject me, I actually cried for hours, but it was more like on and off crying. My mom told me that there are many successful people who were rejected because people didn't see the talent in them then. An example is Michael Jordan, he didn't make his middle school basketball team and now he's considered one of the best players in NBA history. Beyonce lost with her group on a singing show called Starsearch and she's one of the most successful artists ever. The lesson that you should take from them is, they all experienced a form of "failure," before they could succeed. I don't believe in the word failure because you aren't meant to do everything the way you expected the first time if you learned something from your mistakes, then how could it be considered a failure?

So I went to middle school and I was planning on applying to the program that I was rejected from again. I was working harder than I ever had before and was receiving a's and I wanted to be sure that they would have no reason to reject me again. Then, the deadline for applying was approaching and something in my mind changed because I realized that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, in an equally as good program that just wasn't as known but had more benefits. I had spent so much time on the fact that I was rejected from a program where I thought I belonged, that I didn't realize that I was already in a good program. Luckily, that only occurred in the first few months and I was still excelling in that year and the two years after that.

Last November it was time to start applying to specialty centers and writing essays, let me tell you, I was terrified of being rejected again. At my school, they were telling us that not everyone is going to be accepted into a program and that didn't help with my feelings at all. I had the mindset that I was going to be rejected by all of the ones I applied to and I tried to prepare myself for that only to surprised. I had gotten accepted into 5 out of the 7 places I applied to. The two that I wasn't accepted into only took one person from each school and the other didn't have any guaranteed spots for any school, so it was possible for no one from a school to get in. The one that I will be enrolled in, in the fall was also very picky and only accepted 50 people out of the whole county and my county is one of the biggest ones in my state. In my junior in Senior year in high school, I will also be enrolled in a community college and I will graduate with my associate's degree at the end of high school along with my high school diploma. At my graduation, I got an award for "academic excellence," and only 6 or 7 people out of my school got the award. I didn't let my rejection determine my future and you shouldn't either.