How have you dealt with losing?

I’m sure we all have more than one instances in the past where we have lost in a competition of some kind. Maybe formal competition, or maybe a less formal kind like in love, or in seeking a promotion, or in getting into a college.

I applied to six colleges—most of them Ivy League, and I only got into one that was decidedly not Ivy League. It was a college I had never heard of before I started applying, and I only applied because they sent me a letter inviting me to.

I was feeling pretty shitty. I certainly hadn’t met my own expectations. My father eventually told me that he was proud I had gotten into that school. But the shame of that loss didn’t really leave me until I had been at the college for a while, had made friends, and had come to understand that it was the perfect place for me.

What’s your story? Why did you lose? How did you deal with it?