Rejection Therapy

On January 28, Tuesday, we had our first meeting in our subject Technopreneurship. A technopreneur is a new age of entrepreneur who makes use of technology to come out with something new to make some innovation. We were introduced and oriented on how we were going to deal with this subject for the rest of the semester. Honestly at first, I had not realized how this subject is really important to us students, as future engineers. We were oriented on how we should create innovations and enhance our skills as leaders. Our fixed mindset should be changed and we have to step out of our comfort zone to be able to improve ourselves and face the environment related to our field.

            This is why we were assigned to do an activity which is called “Rejection Therapy”. In this activity, we will be faced with the feelings of being rejected and realize how we react to such scenario. A “social experiment” must be done to be able to experience. What I decided to do is to randomly offer candy (Mentos in the long packaging) to total strangers. We also have to vlog our feelings and insights before and after the social experiment.

The social experiment was done right after our orientation in the Main Campus Amphitheater for our Seminars and Field Trips subject. The target area was first at Plaza Mabini, Batangas City. It was during lunch time and the sun was still high above so not much people were at the plaza.

 It was honestly hard to gather courage to approach a stranger. The more time to take before going, the more nervous you get. Finally, I was able to approach a person who seemed to be a student of elementary or junior high school. I awkwardly sat beside him and asked if he wanted candy. He agreed without hesitation which caught me by surprise I even accidentally dropped a candy while giving him one. I was not expecting an acceptance at first try.

After that, I had the courage to approach another person, also young of age, selling sampaguita wreaths. I was rejected, and what made me feel worse was that he was asking for me to buy sampaguita from him, and did not want any candy. My wallet was not with me during the moment so I was not able to buy even if I wanted to. That was my first rejection. Rejected by a child who just wants to earn money and did not care much about what kids are usually happy about.

I then decided to go to the mall because there was hardly any other person approachable at the moment. This was because I was also with a group of classmates doing their own social experiments. And since there weren’t much people in the plaza at that moment, and we were being noticed as time goes on, we decided to change our location.

The next person I encountered the social experiment with was sitting on the floor at one side near the entrance of the mall. When I offered her candy, she suddenly laughed and asked why. I did not want to expose the experiment so I just made a reason that I just wanted to finish the candies and wanted to share her some. She then laughed and agreed.

World Of Fun was my next stop. I spotted a guy sitting alone. I was very hesitant at first because I know that I will be rejected knowing how serious he looked, and I was right. I got rejected as soon as I offered him. I felt really embarrassed at that moment.

The next one, I approached a guy sitting on the stairs. It was kind of awkward, knowing how the stairs was pretty vacant, I sat to a spot right in front of him which I think he noticed. Right then and there I offered him candy, which once again surprised me as he did not even hesitate to agree. I was expecting him to either reject me or simply ask why, but he did not and said, “Sige.”

Lastly, there was a woman sitting alone in a food stall and as I approached and offered her candy, she rejected me at once. She said she was already full.

After I got three acceptances and three rejections, I decided to finish the social experiment. As a person who does not interact much with people, I felt socially and emotionally exhausted. It was also physically exhausting of course. I realized that when I got rejected, the more disappointed I got and it was harder to approach another person. At the same time, the more courage I need to collect and feel proud of myself after a simple interaction.

I feel like rejection therapy is making you realize how you face rejection and being aware of it. To be honest, there was a point when I really wanted to stop. One motivation I got was to finish this activity for it is necessary for my grades, so I cannot lie how I really forced myself to approach strangers. This experience was very new to me, but after all that happened, I can’t help but laugh about it and thinking that it was not that bad after all.