A waitlist is still a list, and you’re on it. That’s not nothing.

Being in a holding position is not the same as being refused. It means you cleared enough to be kept in consideration, and it leaves a door in a state that a refusal would have closed. The discomfort of not knowing pushes people to treat the unresolved as though it were already lost.

Let the pending thing stay pending without converting it into a rejection in your head. Keep moving on other options in the meantime, since both can be true at once. If there is a polite way to stay visible, use it once and then leave it alone.