By Annette Aucamp & Emma Kavcioglu

When you’re a student at Granada Hills Charter (GHC), it feels like your entire four-year long experience is leading up to one thing – going off to a new shiny college. Students put in all this work, taking countless numbers of honors and AP classes and participating in a multitude of different activities for what feels like one singular moment: logging into your dream college’s portal, clicking the status update, and seeing confetti, symbolizing that all your hard work and sacrifice amounted to the greatness that you hoped it would. 

“This is a critical time for seniors because of the fact that after being in high school for four years, there’s been this gradual buildup of milestones being met, so then you get to this point of having endless possibilities after building up all of this stamina for years,” social worker Jacqueline Orcutt said. 

But the reality is, sometimes you don’t see that confetti. Hundreds of thousands of kids are met with what feels like the most hurtful opening possible in that moment: “We regret to inform you.”

Rejection always cuts deep. Getting rejected when asking someone out or getting rejected from a job you applied for hurts. But getting rejected from a school that you imagined yourself going to, and worked immensely hard for, for years hurts on another level. 

But bracing for rejection, or the possibility of rejection, is necessary. For GHC students, the Wellness Center can provide key guidance and advice during these times of uncertainty and disappointment. 

“Disappointment is a part of life,” Orcutt said. “With college acceptances, a lot of the time we’re not just looking at disappointment. We’re looking at someone’s identity coming to a crashing halt and I think that’s what cuts at the core when you get rejected from a college. It’s like that fabric that you’ve been weaving for all of these years, all of these seeds that you’ve been planting, gets wiped away all in an instant.”

In these last few months, it’s crucial for seniors to realize that your worth, value, and identity are not dependent on what colleges you get into or what school you end up attending. What really matters is using the last few months of high school valuably and preparing for what will be a momentous change in your life.

“It’s so important for seniors to spend time with their friends,” Orcutt said. “Enjoy these last couple of months that you have left. Treasure these moments with your family. Make the most of these moments because soon these last crucial months will be over.” 

Students can visit the Wellness Center Monday through Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. There, they can talk to one of three available social workers about how to process emotions when feelings of rejection are imminent.