When the door is not opened as you expect, disappoitment and frustration usually come in sooner or later. Questions also arise. Why? Why me? Why am I blocked outside? Loser, being defeated, oh, you name it. So you try it again. You gather all the hope and strength, you carefully examine it and try to get in. You consult with people, you check all kinds of resources, you reviw your old path, you think you get a new solution. So there you go. However, do you realize that sometimes an unopened door may be a blessing!
I was not accepted by theanthropology program in the graduate school of SUNY Stony Brook more than twenty years ago. I was extremely sad and ashamed. After those feelings and memory seemed wiped away for years, I had a chance to chat with a young man sitting next to me because the professor was late that night. He told me that he was a dorm manager (?) at Stony Brook. Oh, that reminded me of the pain memory. Yet, with the healed scar, I had the courage to tell him what Stony Brook meant to me. After hearing my short story, he said, it was good that you didn't come to Stony Brook, the program of anthropology shrinked because, for some reasons, some professors left the department.
