Al-Ola Abdallah, Associate Professor and Plasma Cell Disorder Program Director of the Division of HMCT at the University of Kansas Medical Center, shared on LinkedIn:
“Rejected Again? This Is Not Where Your Story Ends.
To everyone applying this year: I wish you success with all my heart. More importantly, I hope you never allow rejection to make you question your worth.
After graduating from medical school, I applied to 15 hospitals to work as a general physician in my home country, Jordan.
Fifteen applications.
Not one interview.
Not one opportunity to introduce myself, share my passion, or demonstrate what I could do.
I watched my classmates receive job offers and begin their careers while I remained behind, wondering what was wrong with me.
I felt invisible. I felt unwanted.
I had spent years studying medicine and dreaming of helping others, yet it seemed that no hospital believed I was even worth meeting.
I will be honest: it hurt then, and it still hurts when I remember it today.
Eventually, I came to the United States and worked as an unpaid research assistant for 10 months. There were difficult days when I questioned my path and wondered whether my sacrifices would ever lead anywhere.
But every morning, I showed up.
I worked. I learned. I kept moving forward. Slowly, I rebuilt the confidence that rejection had shaken.
Today, I understand that those 15 rejections did not mean I was not good enough. They simply meant that my story was meant to continue somewhere else.
If one of those hospitals had offered me a position, perhaps I would never have pushed myself beyond what I thought was possible. Perhaps I would never have discovered how much strength I carried within me.
Rejection can make you feel small, but it cannot determine how far you will go. Being overlooked today does not mean you will remain unseen forever.
If you receive a rejection this year – or many rejections – allow yourself to feel the disappointment. It is real, and it hurts. But please do not stop.
Do not allow a closed door to convince you that there is no place for you.
Keep showing up.
Keep believing.
Keep building yourself.
One day, you may look back at the moment that made you feel unwanted and realize that it was the very moment that pushed you toward the life you were meant to live.
Your rejection is not the end of your story.
Sometimes, it is where your real story begins.
Best of luck to every applicant. I am rooting for you.”
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