The year was 2001, and I had just graduated high school. A sea of promising colleges spread out before me, however being the ultimate procrasturbator that I am, I hadn’t applied to any of them. At the last minute I applied to two colleges- FSU and USF. I literally chose them because I thought it was funny that they were palindromes of each other. FSU rejected me, a fact that I have never shared at this moment, mostly because its a Florida party school and there is nobody that parties more effectively than me. I ended up going to USF and short-story-long ended up spending eight years having a blast.
That rejection letter haunted me though, and even though I blame it on the fact that I was incredibly late with my application, I will always wonder what if. Rejection letters in general have a bad wrap. When you receive a rejection letter you instantly turn it into an assault on your character. When you are rejected by a guy that you like, it instantly means there is something wrong with you.
The truth is that rejection can be a powerful positive thing, if you choose to view it that way. When that douche bag dumps you because he couldn’t keep his dick off your slutty step-sister’s thigh at your mother’s third wedding your immediate reaction is to think that you aren’t good enough.
If you believe, as I do, that everything happens for a reason then every single rejection you experience is just life clearing the way for the right things to come along. If you had stayed with every whoremonger of a man that ever dumped you, you would probably be barefoot, pregnant, and living in Dusty Butt, South Dakota. If I had actually gone to FSU, I would have lived in a one-gay-bar shit-box town like Tallahassee, Fl and never met my circle of friends, who continue to be some of the most amazing things in my life.
If you are in control of the way life occurs to you, then nothing will have the power to throw you off your game. The point is, rejection = opportunity. Remember that the next time you get upset that your father didn’t hug you enough when you were young. He probably didn’t want you to discover he had man boobs.
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