The waitlist is a hallway, not a verdict. Keep living while you stand in it.

Being told to wait is not being told no, but it feels close enough that people put their lives on hold inside it. A hallway is a place you pass through, and nothing about standing in one requires you to stop doing everything else. The decision belongs to someone else and arrives when it arrives.

Make the plan that assumes the answer is no, and make it good, because you may want it anyway. Apply elsewhere, take the shift, sign up for the thing. If the yes comes, you will be choosing between two real options.