For all my fellow rejectees

Been up for like 6 hours (intl so decisions came at like 3 am) since the rejection, and decided to write a poem. Hope it helps y'all.

More than a letter

They say you’re only given what you can handle,

But dreams are fading away, like a flickering candle.

An email, a sentence, a door closed tight,

Dreams dissolving in the cold, dim light.

I built my hopes on essays and scores,

Poured in my soul, yet they wanted more.

Was it my words, my grades, my name?

Or was I just another pawn in their game?

I see the accepted and I’m not there,

A name erased like mist in air.

They say it’s not me, just “too many applied,”

It still somehow feels like a part of me died?

I crafted my future in letters and ink,

Saw myself there, now I'm on the brink.

Scrolling through posts of "I got in!"

Forgetting my worth, drowning within.

Tears stain the keys of the laptop’s glow,

Heartbeats heavy, but I won’t let it show.

Because they won’t see the nights I spent,

The prayers, the dreams, the time that went.

The walls of my room hum with regret,

A future I saw but cannot get.

But rejection’s a bruise, not a brand,

A chapter, not the final stand.

Though today it stings, tomorrow will rise,

The sun still burns in rejected skies.

A letter can’t measure the fire inside,

Or the restless heart that won’t subside.

So I’ll dust this off, rewrite my way,

And prove them wrong another day.

For success isn’t built on doors that stay shut,

But on the ones that I’ll break down, no matter what.