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Life Lessons From Managing Disappointments
Just the other day, I was looking through all my credentials I had kept in my safe when I discovered two rejection letters that I had stored alongside all my certificates.
While these documents do not add to my qualifications, I have stored them safely over the years with my other important documents. Some might ask why I choose to store these reminders of what appears to be set backs. For me, however, they carry an important message.
Allow me put these letters into context. In November 2003, I applied to 3 top universities in the US for their respective master’s programs. By the second week of February 2004, I received the first rejection letter from one of those schools. In April, I received the second rejection. After this second rejection, I resigned my fate and started preparing to try again the next year.
However, after I had spent some time with this disappointment, another letter arrived in the mail. This letter told me that I had been admitted to Harvard University. I graduated two years later with a Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.
