Realizing Rejection Isn’t the End

After working tirelessly towards a particular moment in your life, not obtaining the outcome you longed for can be heartbreaking. It feels as if all your effort wasn’t worth it, and that your skills were never good enough. Whether it be a job interview, leadership position, or relationship, rejection is one of the hardest states to recover from. However, I have come to realize that handling rejection the right way can propel you faster towards your goals. In this article, I will be discussing strategies that you can utilize in your life to turn rejection into an opportunity for redemption.

Create Distance Between Yourself and Rejection

Sometimes, the most powerful comeback begins with silent reflection. It is often necessary to spend time alone after disheartening moments to rekindle your feelings of self-esteem. There is no doubt that rejection causes you to question your capabilities and identity. Oftentimes, it makes you feel as if your best was never enough. Earlier this year, I had spent months perfecting my application for a medical internship that I truly wanted. I re-read my application essay thousands of times, asked all the right teachers for reference letters, and worked even harder in school to ensure that my grades were high enough to get me selected. Nonetheless, just a couple of weeks ago, I received an email saying that I had been “rejected”.

The word “rejected” seemed so foreign to me; I realized then that this was the first rejection I had ever received in my life. Yet, why did it have to be for an opportunity that I sought after so badly?

I have always wanted to pursue a career in healthcare, but not getting accepted into this internship made me question whether this was the right choice. I was questioning my capabilities in science because of this one rejection, and the spiral of doubt eventually made its way into my self-esteem. I wanted to distance myself from my parents, my friends, my teachers… it felt as if I was a disappointment to them anyways.

However, it turned out that distance was exactly what I needed. I had to leave this rejection behind me and begin focusing on other opportunities in my life. By forcing myself to move past my rejection, I made sure that it did not hinder my success in other aspects of my life–including my self-esteem. Knowing that I wanted to pursue a career in healthcare, I now felt even more motivated to grow my school’s science club, as well as apply for other medical internships. While it may feel impossible to move forward after a missed opportunity, you have to do so–ensuring that you can still succeed with confidence.

Reflect on Your Mistakes

Once you feel ready to revisit your rejection without hindering your self-confidence, I recommend revisiting the events leading up to it. This way, you are often able to find flaws in your actions that you had not previously thought of. Building off the example of my rejection from an internship, I gave myself three weeks before looking back at my application. Yet this time, I noticed flaws in my application essay, such as errors in grammar or a lack of specificity in my examples.

Although it may hurt to realize that you made careless mistakes, you must remind yourself that you put in your best effort at the time. Moreover, as young adults, we are always making mistakes and learning from them to become the best version of ourselves. Now that I’ve learned about the specific criteria required in internship application essays, I will make sure to implement them in my future applications. Thus, by taking rejection as a learning opportunity, you are able to increase your chances of future success.

Come Back Stronger than Ever

After gaining insight into your mistakes, you are finally ready to bounce back after rejection. In my eyes, this is the final and most difficult stage when recovering from the state of hopelessness that follows rejection. You have to truly trust yourself and your capabilities, and reassure your inner self that you are enough.

Despite missed opportunities, remember that they are not true determinants of your worth. In life, various experiences, initiatives, and opportunities will come and go with time, but the value you give to your capabilities is everlasting.

To begin reapplying to other medical internships, I had to remind myself of the passion I have for healthcare. I realized that it is my purpose in this world, and that I will never stop working until I have paved my way in the field of science. By revisiting the most crucial part of my identity, I felt ready to bounce back after my rejection. I wasn’t going to let it hold me down any longer, because I knew that this would prevent me from achieving the goals I’d set for myself since childhood. Hence, by reminding yourself of your worth and identity, not even rejection can hold you back.

While rejection is often associated with misfortune and failure in society, it often provides the necessary motivation to work even harder towards your goals. In life, we are never going to get exactly what we want at all times, so it’s better to embrace rejection and the learning that follows instead of harming your self-confidence. The next time you receive a rejection for anything—a prom proposal, a job, an internship—just make sure you get ready for the personal growth that is yet to come.