The Gift of Rejection: My Journey to Becoming a Mastercard Foundation Scholar – YOA

Seventeen rejections later, I’m grateful to announce…
In 2022, once I started my journey to pursue a world-class training, I by no means imagined this might be the opening line of my scholarship announcement. I assumed I’d be accepted on my first attempt. I trusted my story, my work, and the trail I used to be strolling. What I didn’t know then was that this course of would take a look at every little thing I stated I believed about myself. This is a reflection on rejection, on studying, on shifting ahead shortly sufficient to make which means out of each “no,” and nonetheless discovering a manner to win. I had acquired many “yeses” in numerous areas of my life, however when it got here to scholarships, I stored listening to one phrase: no. At the time, it felt like doorways had been closing in my face. I didn’t realise those self same rejections had been quietly shaping me. They had been turning into a unusual, sudden reward.

Rejecting Rejection
The first rejection I acquired broke me greater than I knew. For a second, it felt like my world was collapsing. I cried, and once I known as my buddy Nelly, she laughed. Not as a result of she didn’t care, however as a result of she understood one thing I used to be solely simply starting to study: rejection shocks you most if you find yourself satisfied you deserve the “yes.” A couple of weeks later, I seen one thing worrying. I had began to query my price and my talents. I started to get up with a quiet thought within the again of my thoughts: “Maybe I’m not all of that.” That is what occurs when rejection stays too lengthy in your thoughts. It strikes from being an end result to turning into an identification. It begins to color the best way you see your self. In 2023, I discovered the braveness to begin rejecting rejection. I started to perceive that rejection was not at all times about me or what I may do. Sometimes, and perhaps many occasions, rejection will not be saying, “You are not enough.” Sometimes it’s saying, “Not here. Not now. Not this way.” Maya Angelou as soon as stated, “You may face many defeats, but you must not be defeated.” That line grew to become essential to me. I realised I must not ever carry a defeated coronary heart. I had to refuse to let rejection develop into the vitality I carried into each room. The vitality of rejection is the vitality of shrinking, of settling for much less, of quietly telling your self: “You are not all that you thought you were.” By all means, reject rejection earlier than it settles into your bones and turns into the best way you see your life.

Rethinking Rejection
Once I finished permitting rejection to outline me, I started to rethink it. In 2023, I skilled a breakthrough: I began seeing rejection as suggestions and as a likelihood to create. The extra you do, the extra suggestions you get. The extra suggestions you get, the extra prepared you develop into to attempt once more, to regulate, to construct one thing higher. Rejection grew to become an invite to strengthen myself, sharpen my talents, and put together for the following stage of my journey. It pushed me to revisit my desires, my aspirations, my work, and my why. It compelled me to ask:

• Why am I doing this?
• Who am I if this scholarship says no once more?

If rejection could make me reject the very thought of who I’m, then how deep is my conviction in myself, my craft, my being, and my doing? That query confirmed me what I used to be actually going through: not simply rejection, however the weak spot of my very own perception in who I’m. I typically take into consideration individuals who stored making an attempt. The gentle bulb, for instance, took many makes an attempt earlier than it lastly labored. What would the world seem like if extra folks gave up than stayed by means of the wrestle? What type of life would we’ve got if each “no” was the top of the story?

Hammed Alabi Kayode, who walked with me by means of this journey, typically shares timelines of his personal rejections. He reveals younger folks that we must not ever deal with rejection as a last verdict. If I had stopped on my seventeenth trial, I’d by no means have acquired the “yes” that got here on my 18th. It would have remained a story of failure, not a story of return. I realized that we should problem the concept that failure or rejection defines us. To transfer by means of life believing that each “no” is a measure of our price is to deny ourselves the possibility to act, to attempt, to develop. And it is just within the doing, many times, that we slowly develop into who we’re meant to be. Rejection taught me this straightforward reality: my worth will not be tied to any “yes” or “no.” Sometimes what we wish will not be incorrect , It is simply not for that second.

Reframing Rejection

Rethinking rejection modified how I understood it. Reframing rejection modified how I responded to it.
In cognitive psychology, rejection might be seen as a matter of interpretation somewhat than proof of private failure. Aaron T. Beck wrote, “The way people feel is influenced by the way they interpret their experiences.” In different phrases: rejection will not be a reality about your price; it’s an interpretation, and interpretations might be modified. When I began to see it this fashion, one thing shifted. I grew to become extra open to listening to others, to asking, “What can I do better?” and to asking higher questions. I grew to become extra deliberate concerning the folks and communities I surrounded myself with, about becoming a member of circles and groups the place folks had been constructing issues that mattered. That openness stretched my world.

Rejection additionally drew me nearer to individuals who believed in me deeply. Dough Onah, Daniel Nwaeze, and Wonah Martin would say to me, “You are more worthy of a scholarship than anyone I know. You will get it.” Their perception, mixed with actual assist and trustworthy suggestions, jogged my memory how essential friendships and mentorship are when rejection is loud and hope is quiet. Dr. Grace Ihejiamaizu would take the quickest OPPORTUNITY to write me a advice. That spoke to me, that i used to be not alone.

When I look again now, my first application and my most up-to-date one learn like essays written by two completely different folks. Rejection modified how I relate to the world, how I pay attention, and the way I give and obtain suggestions. It helped me develop into extra attentive to what was taking place round me, to what my atmosphere was saying, and to what the timing of my life, below God, was saying. There was a new openness to study and to be guided. I bear in mind asking Mirabel Morah, who can also be a scholar, about her journey: the rejections, the teachings, the method behind the “yes” that folks see. Those conversations jogged my memory that even individuals who appear to “get it on the first try” aren’t dwelling excellent lives. A “yes” in a single space doesn’t imply there are not any “no’s” in others.

Reframing rejection taught me that a “no” will not be the entire story of my life. It is a second. It is one chapter. I get to select whether or not it turns into a lifeless finish or a doorway into development, humility, and a clearer sense of what God is looking me to do.

Redirecting Rejection
By 2024, I realised I wanted to do greater than take into consideration rejection otherwise. I wanted to use it otherwise. I made a decision to redirect the vitality I had been pouring into countless functions into creating. Instead of solely chasing alternatives, I began constructing: making probably the most of my imaginative and prescient, my mission, and the work I may really do with what I had. Along the best way, I started to realise one thing: what I’m on the lookout for can also be on the lookout for me, however I’ve to be in the best place, doing the best issues. That meant being trustworthy with myself:

• Does this chance actually match the type of individual I’m and the work I would like to do?
  Have I really learn the standards and given my finest effort?

Between then and now, there was a actual difference: within the high quality of my work, within the depth of my experiences, and in how I perceive the world. I gained a clearer view of my why and developed a deeper love for each the doing and the being behind my desires.

Then one thing sudden occurred.

I began receiving invites to rooms I had as soon as been rejected from. The similar locations that had turned me away started to ask me in. The similar doorways that after closed began to open.

I realized that the world ultimately notices individuals who preserve going — who preserve constructing, preserve adjusting, and preserve exhibiting up, even after listening to “no.” Redirecting rejection taught me that I don’t have to wait for each door to swing open earlier than I start. I can begin the place I’m. I can develop, construct, and develop into. In time, some of these doorways will open — not solely as a result of I knocked, however as a result of I grew to become somebody whose work couldn’t be simply ignored.

Seventeen Rejections Later, One Yes

On the 4th of April, 2025, I acquired the information that I had been awarded the Mastercard Foundation Scholarship, a “yes” that felt completely timed. As Lenin stated, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” That day felt like many many years gathered into one. The scholarship does greater than cowl tuition and dwelling bills; it creates room for studying, reflection, and development, with a deal with enterprise, local weather-associated work, and transitions that assist you concentrate on the place you’re coming from, the place you’re going, and who you’re turning into. For me, it’s proof of what can occur when rejection is rethought, reframed, and redirected, and it opens the door to an MSc in Africa and International Development on the University of Edinburgh. Most of all, it jogs my memory that generally the actual reward will not be solely within the “yes” you lastly obtain, however within the many “no’s” that develop you into the one who can carry that “yes” effectively. 

Seventeen rejections later, I hope my one “yes” evokes you to take a likelihood by yourself win, by yourself alternative. Keep dreaming, preserve creating, preserve doing.