Rejection and Resilience

When I was a first-year engineering student at JKUAT in 2007, I applied to MIT, Yale, Harvard and Stanford. It was a tedious process that involved filling out forms, writing essays, getting recommendation letters and taking the SAT exams.

Thinking I would not return to JKUAT, I didn't touch any engineering book when we broke for long holidays in December that year. I instead read biographies and history books.

The book I enjoyed most was a collection of essays about Thomas Jefferson, the gifted third U.S. president. It was titled Thomas Jefferson: The Man... His World... His Influence.

But then came the Saturday in March 2008 when MIT released its admissions decisions online. I felt miserable when I checked mine and learnt I had been rejected.

Interestingly, I felt better when I went to church at All Saint' Cathedral Nairobi the following day. In fact, I enjoyed the songs were sang in the service we had, especially one that had these lines:

Yes, yes, let's get rid of Him,
He's too popular with the crowd;
The world would be better
If He were a dead man!

But it was my hope of getting into the other three American colleges I had applied to that made me feel better. I especially hoped Stanford would admit me as it had some high school mates in previous years.

And yikes! When the colleges released their decisions a few weeks later, I became depressed on learning they had also rejected me. I couldn't even get out of bed for several days. Okay, I did but with difficulty.

Though I've had some other bad days since then, I don't think they have ever been as bad as when I learnt that Yale, Harvard and Stanford had rejected me. But such is life.

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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed this story, you might also enjoy "When Things Go Wrong".