by Ellen Larson

This past Friday, we held our second Big Questions event of the semester. The event was called, “Exiting the Butler Bubble: What Comes Next After Graduation.” The end of college approaches quickly and can bring with it some job search anxiety, excitement for the next life milestone and the bittersweet feeling of leaving college and moving onto the real world. This Big Questions focused on creating an environment for seniors to come together and talk about any concerns and excitements they may have for upcoming graduation.

Conversation flowed easily as the seniors in attendance were quick to share their feelings about the topic. We talked about the difficulty of interviewing, finding your passion after Butler, remaining connected to the university and much more. The subject that stuck out to me the most was the dreadful fact that we will have to deal with in the job search process: rejection. Once this topic was brought up, it was clear that everyone had an opinion.

I don’t deal all that well with rejection. I take it personally and I over analyze. I replay everything in my head from the interview to my perfectly crafted resume. It can be debilitating, honestly. Another student that was present gave some perspective on the topic. She said, “ Rejection is something we will always have to deal with. Most of the times it isn’t personal. Most of the time what we are being rejected from isn’t even ours to have in the first place. We just need to trust the process and all will work out.” This is the beauty of group conversation and Big Questions. I was able to walk away with a new outlook on rejection and the scary but comforting saying, “trust the process, it’ll all work out.” Rejection is something we all will have to deal with multiple times in our lives. I learned that it is not about the actual rejection but how we deal with it that really matters.