Ever since December, the cycle has slowed down significantly. I’ll admit, I was naïve to buy into all those “hopeful” posts and actually believe them. People kept saying things like, “Not many interviews have gone out yet there will be a lot more in the second half of the year because of delays with the primary application earlier on.”

I followed the crowd instead of thinking critically. There were a few people who warned us not to rely on those overly optimistic posts and to stick to the timelines from previous years. Unfortunately, they were usually downvoted, and I let that sway me into ignoring their advice. Looking back, I should have paid more attention to the patterns and less to the noise.