What feels like rejection may be protection you are too close to recognize.

Some doors close in a way that only makes sense later, and while you are standing in front of them the closing feels like a judgment on your worth. Distance often changes the reading. The thing you wanted might have cost you something you could not see from where you stood.

This will not comfort you in the first week, and it does not have to. But when a real no arrives, try holding the question open rather than closing it with an interpretation. Give it time before deciding what it meant about you.