Application Unsuccessful


Everybody wants to be accepted. No matter who you are, or how confident you are. We want to be viewed as enough, as good, valued for who we are and what we bring to the table.

When you don't get accepted, the feeling of rejection is intense and it brings with it pain. It's like applying for university. Not getting accepted is them saying that what you used to apply was not good enough, the thing you brought to the table was not sufficient, others did better than you did and so they get in but you don't.

As humans we reject each other all the time. Not just in the big scale things like saying no to a marriage proposal, but in little acts every single day. Your loved one tries to open up about their feelings and you sweep them under the rug. You are saying that their feelings aren't important enough for you to sit up and take notice. Your friend tells you about how terrible his day was, and all you're worried about is getting the conversation over and done with, telling him to get over it. In those moments we do not accept our loved ones in the state that they are in. We are not accepting all that they bring to the table, even the emotions that we do not want to deal with.

In a world that is ruled by social media, acceptance is the subtle but huge elephant in the room. You send a friend request on Facebook, more than two days go by and you feel rejected. You post something and it doesn't get that many likes, you feel rejected. Your ideas, your thoughts, your selfie...all rejected and it hurts.

But the funny thing is that in a world where we all just want to be accepted, we have become less accepting. We fail to love anyone that is too different from us. We shut down anything that takes us out of our comfort zone. We have become the very thing that we hate. We have become the people that point and laugh at the new kid just because he doesn't dress the way that we do. We have become the people that say that your feelings are not important when all we want is somebody to listen to us. We have become the people that only mingle with "our circle" because we've forgotten what it's like to be the new kid on the block. We've forgotten what it's like to want to try something that nobody else has but be discouraged from doing it. We have forgotten what it's like to have a talent that no one believes in. We have become what we hate.

So my questions are: how did we get here and how do we go back? Where we ever there?

I am an Occupational Therapist by profession, but I have many roles that bring meaning to my life. In short, I love people, books and love.

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