And the 2025 Harbinger staff is....
After screenshotting a photo of the staff list posted on Instagram, I zoomed in and instantly looked at the section that listed the new copy editors: the position I wanted.
Ellen Bowser, Avni Bansal, Grace Pei....
Safe to say none of those names spelled Christopher Long.
Aggravated, I figured the editors must have given me something — they did. But “Section Editor” wasn’t the job I wanted. It wasn’t even a position I applied for.
Over the past year, “rejection therapy,” a recent TikTok trend, has exploded in popularity and hundreds of people have participated, searching for opportunities and facing rejection.
While my Harbinger “pivot” was well before this trend, I’ve found that rejection therapy is an effective way to find new opportunities.
Since discovering it during a midnight scroll, I’ve adapted rejection therapy as a mantra, constantly reminding myself to apply for everything despite the chance for rejection.
As a “Section Editor,” I had to design a page every issue, which meant confronting frightening Adobe Software. But more importantly, without the push from rejection therapy, I wouldn’t have applied for anything past a staff writer.
But, this practice extends far past just the Harbinger. Since becoming a “Section Editor,” rejection therapy has pushed me to apply for 14 positions across 10 different organizations.
Had I gotten them all, I would be far too busy and sleep-deprived to write this article. But even just applying for something gives you a shot at meeting new people and developing new skills.
Thanks to this trend, I was accepted to Yale Young Global Scholars — a summer program that had 14,000 applications from over 150 countries, accepting only 1600. When applying, I thought that a Kansan had no chance against a scientist from Poland or a tri-lingual student from Bangalore — two real people I met at YYGS.
But somehow, my summer included 13 days at the Yale Campus in New Haven, Connecticut, a chance I wouldn't have without putting myself on the chopping block of rejection.
I would never have even looked at the application portal without the motivation of the chance to get rejected.
My experience hasn’t just been emails oozing with “We’d be delighted to have you.”
I found out why the trend has “rejection” in the name. The NHS Executive position, the YYGS Student Media Team, Link Crew — all rejections.
Every rejection was accepted, but most importantly, expected. I went into my “rejection therapy” experience knowing full well that every acceptance I received would be accompanied by numerous “I regret to inform you” letters.
Looking back on over a year of “therapy,” I’ve found every “no” as a redirection and every “yes” as an opportunity I wouldn’t get without stepping into a realm of rejection.
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