The Class of 2024 is getting closer and closer every day to the finish line of high school. Everything that seniors have worked for leads up to the final moment of walking across the stage. However, as seniors move onto their next chapter in life, one major hurdle that each year’s seniors must face is college rejection. 

It seems that no matter the number of volunteer hours, extracurricular activities or even advanced classes that a student takes, colleges can still send out a surprising number of rejections to seniors. Applying for college is such a stressful and anxiety-filled process, always making students wonder if they did enough throughout their years of high school. Then, it feels like everything is built up into that one moment when seniors open that email from the school they desire to attend. 

If or when many seniors across the globe opened their rejection letters, it can feel so disappointing and personal to hear that blunt no. It especially does not help when said college only sends out two sentences that basically say, “Thanks for applying, but no thanks.” This can make those who applied feel like they just wasted hours working on endless essays just to get a two-sentence response.

 However, a new motto that has been inspiring many people to not give up on their dreams is “Rejection is just redirection.” While students may have been rejected from schools they were excitedly waiting to hear back from, it doesn’t mean that the rejection is the end of their lives. It means that there is just something better for them out there. 

“I applied to over ten schools this year,” one TuHS senior who wished to remain anonymous said. “I, of course, didn’t anticipate getting into all of the schools, but it was disappointing to hear more ‘no’s than I could have imagined. Throughout this entire process, I kept opening every letter with an open mind. However, the more ‘no’s I got, the more angry I got while opening the letters. I felt embarrassed for even applying to those schools and embarrassed in myself that I thought I would be able to get into those schools. The only thing that kept me going was a TikTok I saw about another girl. She was talking about getting all of these rejections, and it was like seeing myself from another perspective. When seeing myself in this person, it showed me not to be so hard on myself.” 

Even if you didn’t get into your dream school or the school that you were secretly hoping you would get into, this doesn’t mean that you are a failure. It doesn’t mean that you didn’t work hard enough. Overall, it means you just weren’t a fit for that school, and that is okay. There is another path waiting for you.