THE LOVE LETTER: Rejections

In life, success can be a really bad teacher. Life, in itself, is something that happens. There is no exact definition for it. One of the elements of life is success/failure. In reality, there are more failures than successes but the former could be a stepping stone to the latter. I have experienced my fair share of rejections or perhaps failure at some point in life.

One of the specific areas I would like to write about here is the aspect of scholarships. I have been interested in scholarships and their relative applications since my final days in secondary school. Maybe not necessarily with respect to the fact that the money may be worth it but the burden to be lifted and areas it will be helpful for me. However, I am mostly involved in just national scholarships, maybe the foreign one can come in handy in the future. Who knows? But those familiar with applying for foreign scholarships (or schools) will know what the term “Love Letter” means.

The Love Letter…

Actually, it is a term used to refer to an email, phone call, SMS (or any other communication channel mode) sent to inform you that your application has been rejected or perhaps did not meet up to the necessary qualification stage or anything in that category. I guess you must have thought that the love letter was for successful applicants. No, it's the opposite. This term may not be common among those who only partake in just national scholarship applications, I only got to know it when I started to follow some who took part in foreign ones.

I have been interested in scholarships and their relative applications since my final days in secondary school.

As someone who knows where he is coming from, I knew that I have got to take some decisions for myself to help me in my academic journey. I must confess, it has never been easy. In fact, nothing is, really.

The national scholarships were usually organized by government parastatals, companies, or private individuals who do it as part of their core responsibility or what some call the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) for companies. In my first year, I applied for any scholarship that comes my way whether I was eligible or not. But for the most time, I was. I was really pumped up with fire and energy to leave no stone unturned. I went for the tests of the ones I was shortlisted. This time around, I got some motivation just from being shortlisted to make sure I have the best results – even though it didn’t seem like that but my grades ain’t bad either.

Throughout my first year, I got how many scholarships? Nothing! Yes, none at all. But I thought maybe it was because I had no experience with the tests.

I stepped up the game in my second year. Actually, the second year in any tertiary institution especially a university has a lot of scholarships in their favor. This is because most bodies precisely state that they only want second-year students. Sadly, many students do not know this. Well, I got to write exams – some “harder” ones too. But nothing came forth.

I must confess, I grew tired at some point. Not that I gave up totally but the fact that I was almost done with the second year where the chance of getting one was at the peak. But I still did register for some still but not all that I was eligible for. Some I procrastinated on and totally forgot.

Early this year now in my third year and when exams were a few weeks away, I got an SMS indicating I was to write an exam in another state. At this time, I had lost my application details which were what I was to come with for the exam. This happened to so many others too because I remember we applied in 202 during the pandemic. Can you see that gap too? 2020 – ’22. At that point, I felt faint amidst dejection as though it was another of the norm. I said some silent prayers. And some days later, someone use his web scraping skills and was able to retrieve most, if not all, the application details of those who applied. My dear, my energy came back, I started preparing amidst the preparations for school exams too.

Long story short, I wrote the exams and after some months, I got a call that gave me an unconventional love letter. I came out successful. I cried internally like a baby. You know, after I had lost count of registrations I had done. But that moment erased the bad cumulative news over the years. Just this one! After more than 3 years of different applications, different tests…

Basically, what I think held me through was that I felt there were more than enough qualified applicants just for the exact amount of slots needed. So, I just need to be better with each test/exam. My second but paramount motivation was my family, anytime I imagine or maybe I did not finish the registration of one, I felt I let my family down. They have invested too much in me to fail or let them down.

Last but not least, I took my mind off each application and just hope for the worst so I won’t be shocked went the love letter comes in. In a way, I once thought I was Moses, one to lead people to their destination and perhaps not get there himself. So, I carried people along by sharing any updates I get and instructing them based on my past experiences. Well, I guess the universe smiled at me after doing such for months. _{Absent now, be the love letter…}