Archive | December 5, 2008

Scholarship Aftermath: Dealing with Loss and Disappointment

I was talking with a friend last night whose recent scholarship interview has left her a bit upset and frustrated at the moment. She felt like she did great, and that she deserved to move on to the next round of the process, but ultimately, she was not selected.

If you’ve read my article on success, you’ll know that I understand the feeling. When I learned that I did not move on to the final interview round for the Loran Award I was devastated. For the week after the results were revealed, I experienced a bag of emotions.

I was mad at the judges for making the “mistake” of not putting me through. I read the profiles of the previous year’s winners, and felt that I was just as good as any of them. I was upset when I learned that I did worse than other semi-finalists who I expected to do better than.

But whenever you’re emotional, it’s hard to think rationally and objectively. You start to try and come up with any reason to justify why things didn’t go your way. For instance, at that exact moment of defeat, the whole process seemed unfair – the judges only had my application and met me for only about an hour in total. They never saw me or my work in action. I thought to myself: “how could they make an important decision with such little information?”

Realize: The Scholarship Program is in Charge, Not You

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