There are a lot of things people prepare for. Bringing reusable bags to the grocery store to avoid paying for bags, keeping First Aid and disaster preparedness kits, and saving up for college and retirement, are all steps people take to prepare. Bellarmine is a college preparatory school, so as students, we are constantly preparing for life after high school.

However, there is one thing Bellarmine cannot prepare us for: rejection. Many seniors have been hearing back from colleges, and not all have been receiving good news.

While waiting to hear back from my top choice school, I Googled, “how to handle getting rejected from my dream school.” The results Google provided me with were underwhelming, mostly Mom blogs about how to comfort grieving children or some feel good crap about moving on. The only conclusion I could draw from this crappy advice was, “guess I better get in because I can’t handle being rejected.”

The day decisions came out, I was feeling great, confident that my life was about to change for the better, that I would soon know exactly what my future would look like. I refreshed and refreshed until the decision was posted and excitedly clicked, unaware of how that click would deliver of one the most devastating feelings of my life.

I reread the “we regret to inform you” line over and over again, certain my eyes were deceiving me, that there was no way I had been rejected. As I told my parents, tears flowed out of my eyes. I shouted some expletives, put on my saddest clothes, and sat on the couch, and did nothing for the rest of the day. The next days were hard, as I could hardly go an hour without the painful reminder of my rejection, and just when I thought I had finally gotten over it, that I no longer cared that I had gotten rejected, someone would ask, “You got in, right?” And a painful wave of despair would crush me.

Two months later, I have successfully convinced myself that it wasn’t going to be a good fit for me anyway, and that I would have way better offers coming my way. Is this really true? Probably not. Does thinking it is bring me some type of twisted comfort? Yes, occasionally.

But rejection doesn’t just come in an email attachment filled with words like regret and despite. You know that feeling when you turn in a test or an essay and feel confident about, sure that your work merited whatever you define as a good grade. But then you get it back, and see that your hard work had been rejected, and the grade given was far from your hopes.

It’s the same thing when you find out that the boy or girl you like, is into someone else. Or the person you lowkey have a thing with ends your fire Snapchat streak, you feel pretty bummed out.

Where do you go from there? Good question. Start with a deep breath, and do something cathartic. Eat your feelings, scream some expletives at a wall or write a nice rant. Take your mind off of your rejection, go for a nice run, blast some music or clean your room. Remember that everything will be okay in the end. Yes, that is extremely corny, but it’s also true. When I saw my rejection, I remember thinking my world was ending, but as my mom reminded me, I would end up in the right place eventually.

Fast forward two months, and that painful memory has found a comfortable spot as a distant thought in my head, and I have moved on to bigger and better things (at least, I hope I have). So, life throws you a curve ball and you strike out, remember there are a million more pitches coming across your plate, and you will get to first base eventually, even if it’s a walk.