I remember signing up to GSoC to work on a Java forum for an open-source wiki tool and not getting in. It sucked, but it pushed me to apply for another scheme and eventually I landed an internship in a local business using ASP.NET and I fell in love with C#. 5-6 years later, I still write C# and I'm very happy.
At the time I'd have chosen GSoC over the other internship scheme, but ultimately I think it all worked out very nicely for me. When one door closes, another usually opens.
