“Thank you for your application. We had a very competitive pool of applicants this cycle. Unfortunately, we could not admit everyone . . . .”
You work for months or years to polish a careful application to your dream school, internship, or job, only to open the decision notice and see this sterile language staring back at you.
We all dread the rejection letter.
Rejection is part of life, especially in the competitive jungles of higher learning. But it’s not a new or modern experience.
Justin “Martyr” was born around the turn of the second century AD, probably in Samaria. As the title “martyr” suggests, he was a Christian who died under Roman persecution, in the year 165. He is also remembered as a philosopher and apologist: a public defender of Christian beliefs and practices against pagan and Jewish critics. He was also a teacher of the Christian sectarian writer, Tatian, and (likely) the anti-heretical writer, Irenaeus of Lyons.
In a stylized literary dialogue with a Jewish man named Trypho–largely modeled on Plato’s famous dialogues–Justin tells us about his background, from his initial education in Greek philosophy up through his conversion to Christianity.
Apparently, his initial attempts to find a philosophical education were filled with frustration. In antiquity, there were no real universities of the sort we know today. Especially for an upper-level discipline such as philosophy, an aspiring student had to look for a master teacher to take him on as his understudy. Justin’s first attempts at finding such a teacher ended in disappointment. His would-be instructors were not interested in the right philosophical questions or were more keen on making money from their position.
But the young Justin refused to quit: he described his soul as nearly bursting with eagerness to glean the best of what real philosophy had to offer. Undeterred, he turned to a Pythagorean philosopher who had a stellar reputation. Surely, this was the teacher he was looking for.
In Justin’s later retelling, this Pythagorean philosopher seemed a bit cool toward him at the outset. After Justin had explained that he wanted study philosophy under his tutelage, the philosopher replied,
“Why then! You’re familiar with music, astronomy, and geometry?” The philosopher explained that there was no real way to do philosophy properly without knowledge of these other areas. Upon Justin’s admission that he did not have experience with these subjects, the Pythagorean “dismissed me,” in Justin’s words.
The ancient equivalent of the admissions process had exploded in Justin’s face. His resume had been rejected–perhaps somewhat speciously–because he lacked the proper prereqs, and he describes a feeling many of us will recognize. “I was frustrated,” he says, and “out of hope.”
Having taught and advised ambitious high schoolers, I have seen my share of students who were in Justin’s place; I have been there myself more than once. There’s some real comfort in knowing that this kind of disappointment is not out of the ordinary.
And Justin’s story didn’t end there, of course–which is the better lesson still. He eventually found the education in philosophy he was seeking from the Platonists, which eventually pointed him toward Christianity.
It’s no small irony that Justin went on to be much more influential and celebrated than the anonymous philosopher who curtly told him to go home and work on his resume.
The same lesson applies to rejected applicants today. Setbacks and disappointments are a normal part of higher education. The key to success is to keep pushing through toward the right fit.
