For seniors who applied to college via an early application program, the arrival of your admission decision(s) this month will likely feel like anything but just another day. There is so much pressure and drama inserted into these announcements, it’s difficult to maintain your perspective no matter how grounded you and your family may be.

If you get the news you were hoping for, congratulations. As much as I try to remind people that it’s a mistake to treat any admissions decision as a measure of your success or failure as a student (and even less so as a person), you certainly deserve to feel proud, relieved, and excited about this news. Celebrate with your family. Be grateful for your circumstance. Start envisioning yourself in college, because you’ve just received confirmation of that outcome, even if you applied in a non-binding program and intend to wait for your future acceptances before accepting an offer.

But if your news was not so bright, I hope you’ll read and embrace this when you’re ready.

Like breakups, championship game defeats, and any number of outcomes that qualify as heartbreaking but not tragic, this news and the accompanying disappointment will pass. Not today, not tomorrow. But it will happen, probably sooner than you think. This will not be your last disappointment in life. Striving means occasionally coming up empty, even when you did everything you could possibly have done. It’s important to maintain your perspective during those times, to be grateful for the life and opportunities that still lay in front of you.

Nobody is crying themselves to sleep in a freshman dorm because another school said no a year ago, and neither will you. Excitement over a school that said yes will replace disappointment over the school that said no. The work you’ve done, the care you put into your application, the ownership you took of your college process–they’ll pay off tomorrow even if they don’t feel like they paid off today.

Parents, cultivate that long-term perspective in your house. Seniors, fast forward to next year and start envisioning yourself taking advantage of all that your new college will have to offer, whatever that college eventually turns out to be. And keep the collegiate faith, no matter what your impending news reveals.