Celebrate Good Times [or Failure]! (26A)

In the fall semester, I encountered two the hardest rejections, which I took at first as failures. I was rejected from Preview Staff and from Pascal’s Coffeehouse. Both of these jobs were things I wanted with my entire being. I put so much time and effort into writing my application and preparing for rounds of interviews. All to come down to nothing. What made it even more frustrating was that I made it to the last round of both of these processes. Sometimes, I think it’d be better to just get flat out rejected than being led on for so long. 

Although these rejections were hard to bear, they challenged me and made me realize once again that my worth and identity is not found in any job or title but only in my faith in Christ Jesus. Once I believed and trusted in His good plan for my life and surrendered my need for control, I began to understand that these setbacks, although difficult, are even more formative to my character than receiving them first hand ever would have been. I used this quote from Winston Churchill in a speech my senior year after losing an election and need to constantly remember it: “Success is not final. Failure isn’t fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” Being in this entrepreneurship class, I have seen the fruits of this message come alive. Even when, not if, when fail, we have the opportunity to learn from such experiences and ask ourselves what we can do better next time. I’d say I am more open to taking risks because I know they will reap some sort of lesson in the end. However, I would say I am still more on the “rule-following” side of things so maybe in time, through taking more and more risks, I get more accustomed to taking failure in strides and bending and expanding the rules of what success looks like. Additionally, I plan to apply again for Pascal’s—applications just opened—which will take a lot of courage but i am willing to try!