(Okay, maybe I'm being a tad melodramatic, but you get the drift.)
Let's face it. Rejection has been a major theme in my life. Case in point:
In elementary school, I was rejected by the cool kids.
In middle school, I was rejected by my crushes.
In high school, I was rejected three times from the super awesome show choir.
In college, I was rejected by my crushes. Again.
In my adult life, I was rejected from three super awesome graduate schools.
Hey, it happens. Rejection is a part of life, right? And so, I tried to take each rejection in stride--and I got pretty good at brushing off my wounds.
But I had no idea how much a rejection could hurt until I became a freelance writer. Yeah, with each rejection I received, it felt like somebody had pulled a giant bandaid off my heart. Ouuuuucccccchhhhhh.
When I first started freelancing, I made a subconscious decision not to blog about my rejections and dejections. Frankly, I didn't want to spread around my misery--and I was too embarassed to do so. I didn't want to be seen as a failure. A loser. A nobody. Because, sometimes, that's how I felt.
So why dedicate a whole week of blogging to "Surviving Rejection"? Because I said so!!! Bwahahaha!
In all honesty though, I want to share my numerous rejections with y'all because rejection is a big part of my life--and I don't want to hide from it anymore. All writers face rejection. Hell, all people face rejection. Nothing to be embarassed about, eh?
I also hope that these posts will push some of my readers (all ten of you!) to keep striving for your own goals. When I was in the midst of finding an agent, it really helped me to read other writers' blogs who went through the same thing that I was. I felt their pain. I felt their sorrow. And I felt their happiness when they finally succeeded. These blogs buoyed me up when I wanted to throw my hands in the air and turn to knitting or cat-breeding.
So...whether you write or paint or dance or bake pies, you will face rejection at some point along your career path. Inevitably, you will cry and scream and cry and stomp your feet. (Which is fine.) But the most important thing is this: DO. NOT. GIVE. UP.
Believe me, if a so-so writer like me can do it, then you can too. But you'll never taste a drop of the success if you let those rejections get to your head and make you quit. Not a drop!
Stay tuned this week as I recount the various rejections that I've received in my own career! In three short years, I've collected countless rejections from major newspapers, small-town newspapers, national magazines, religious magazines, kids' magazines, small literary journals, various websites, awesome editors, and really fantastic agents. So many rejections!
But somehow I survived them all. AND YOU CAN TOO!
