Learning Lots!

Rejection is truly never that serious.

By: Kiley Irizarry

These past few weeks have been filled with anxiety, disappointment, and stress, however the pathway has quickly cleared and I have learned a lot about myself and my goals. The end result: a sense of pride and a realization that nothing is as dire as I make it out to be.

I found out in May that I did not land the summer experience I was hoping to land with Harvard and AFSCME. It sounds dramatic but I honestly felt like I was losing my mind especially with the overall stressors of finals season and personal issues decided to reach their climax at the worst time possible. Getting that rejection, especially after landing an interview when I least expected it, felt like a confirmation of my already lingering imposter syndrome. I came home from Spring semester contemplating a lot about myself, and it was a very rough few weeks for me.

Then while wallowing in my own self pity for days, I had time to reassess my overall goals and passions. I was very disappointed I did not get the internship, and it felt like I was never going to be able to land a really good opportunity like that again; it also pained me that in Fall I would have to come back to everyone’s amazing summer experiences while I was basically going to be stuck doing one that I did not want to do. But then I had a very good conversation with an attorney friend of my aunt, and she helped me realize that any experience is only as good as I make it. So, if I wanted a good experience, I would have to go out and craft it myself.

I realized that not being selected for the AFSCME position did not mean I could not continue to pursue my research interest with unions, and if I wanted an experience similar to the program that I was rejected from, I could just go out there and craft my own. So, I cold emailed a local Tallahassee union about the Global Scholars program and asked about ways I could be of assistance. I was not expecting a response at all, but I got one! Then next thing I knew I got a phone call from the union’s President! Then next thing I knew I was sitting on the phone with the union’s President crafting out all the things that I wanted to do and then getting an offer to be an intern! I genuinely could not have been happier for this experience and it all started with a cold email.

One thing I want to try to do during this summer experience is learn more about how Florida unions are navigating the new anti union laws signed this session. This is something I would not have been able to do in the other experiences I would have wanted to pursue, because these laws are pretty unique to Florida. I am ready to navigate these new challenges in my summer experience especially because I got into my project because of my parents who are involved in unions, so this law will affect our family and the members of my community.

Another thing I want to try to do this summer is build my public speaking while interacting with the organizers I will be working with. This is both a personal goal and will help me move my project forward; I feel like ever since high school and because of my own mental health struggles, my public speaking has regressed so much and through working with people older than me and who have extensive public speaking and advocacy skills, I believe I can build it back up. Furthermore, since I will have to interview very well spoken people for my project, I want to be able to hold up a good conversation to make my interviews natural.

The third thing I want to do, which is a personal goal, is work on my stress management. Since this will be a very high stress environment, I believe that I will be able to develop better stress management tactics.

Two skills I would like to work on are my public speaking skills, which I will be able to work on while communicating with the unions target population, and my writing skills, which will be practiced when writing summaries and reports for the union.

One quote I would like to share is one that’s fairly popular on the internet which is “closed mouths don’t get fed.” This was one huge lesson I learned with crafting my experience. If I had just gone through another experience I did not want to do, I would have never received the opportunity that I have now with crafting my own experience with a union that targets my CBI. I am grateful that I decided to open my mouth with a cold email.