Hello everyone! Today I'm back with a bit more of a serious topic, how to deal with rejection. Everyone experiences rejection at some point in their life, and sometimes dealing with it without becoming pessimistic or even depressed can be difficult.
I don't want you all to think I've dealt with a whole lot of rejection in my life, because to be completely honest, I've gotten most of the things I've wanted in life so far. It's only in the past year or so that I've had to face not being accepted, so I wanted to share my tips with you.
Rejection can come in many forms. This past year I've not made the tennis team, lost a student government election, not gotten into the school I wanted to, and got rejected by a boy when asking him to a dance. Obviously, all of these things were disappointing, they were things that I wanted, badly, and it didn't work out. Each of these times I could have shut down and isolated myself in my failure, but instead I let my defeats motivate me to work harder.
One of the worst things about rejection is feeling like you aren't good enough. No matter how hard you worked (and trust me, I work hard) it didn't matter in the end. That's wrong, one of the biggest things that define your character is your strength when you're down. If you can find it within yourself to get back up and keep going, you'll be unstoppable.
It's also super important not to forget all of your successes, even little things. Among my rejections, I also got all A's this year, and I did have a date to the dance (we had a blast!), I was invited to join a committee for the dance, and I was accepted into another academic program that ended up being a way better fit for me anyways. I'm a big believer in the saying that "everything happens for a reason", many of my rejections ended up paving the way for other things in my life, that I honestly believe I'm going to be happier with.
Remember, you don't have to deal with anything alone. Your friends and family will always be there to remind you how special you are, and nothing is more important than that! I'm so blessed to have the most amazing support system ever, between my friends and family I grew up believing that I had the power to do anything. That may have made my failures and rejections even harder, but I know it's true, and even when I do fail, they are always going to be right there, no matter how far away they are, to remind me of how great I am!
In the end, yes, rejection hurts. There is no other way to put it, but F. Scott Fitzgerald had it right in his quote "never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat". A couple rejections does not mean that the world is over, you are destined to do great things, and you will!
I hope you all were able to take something away from this post, writing it was a bit therapeutic for me, confronting all of my failures and successes in the past year. If you have any tips for dealing with rejection, leave them in the comments below, I'd love to read them! Stay tuned for another post soon, xo Lauren!