Grateful for the “no’s”
As I am reflecting on my time as a master’s student at ASU’s MIX Center, there is an overwhelming sense of gratitude I feel. I feel gratitude towards my peers and professors. Gratitude towards the opportunities I had to work on fun and impactful projects. To work with state-of-the-art technology. It was really an incredible experience. Check out this article ASU wrote about my journey.
But what I feel the most gratitude for is the “no’s”. The times I thought I knew what I wanted and I didn’t get it. I can think of numerous things that fall into this category (soccer, jobs, friendships, etc.) but what specifically comes to mind is when I didn’t get into the speech therapy grad programs I applied to after undergrad back in 2018. It didn’t make sense at the time. In fact, I was devastated and confused.
It really made me question myself, my skills, my journey.
But knowing what I know now—in 2025, 7 years later—I am so lucky I didn’t get what I thought I wanted.
I am so grateful for the “no’s” from the speech programs. I’m grateful for the “no” from the soccer gods (tearing my meniscus). I’m grateful for the “no’s” from multiple jobs I applied to after leaving the speech clinic. Each of these “no’s” forced me to learn more about myself, build resiliency, and have faith/patience.
I’m also grateful that I have learned to say “no” along the way. In a past blog post, I wrote about leaving my dream job to focus on school. This “no”, even though it came from me, was surprising, unexpected, and somehow left me feeling both confused and assured. And looking back, I’m really proud of myself for making that decision. Not necessarily because I’m proud of the decision to leave my job, but because I’m proud that I trusted myself and trusted that, even though my job was really great, an extremely rare opportunity in this job market, and something I probably wouldn’t get back, holding on for dear life was not the right move.
So as I graduate from this master’s program and enter the job market, I’m keeping this message close. I’m trusting that I will work hard to find the right fit for me. I’m trusting that I will have patience and discernment when needed. And I’m reminding myself to be grateful for the inevitable “no’s” that await.
