Rejection

I just visited a website with t-shirts for writers. One design proclaimed being rejected!

As a writer, I've received a variety of rejections. As a child then an adult, I've been rejected. So what is there to proclaim, like a walking billboard, about rejection? I had to think on it for a bit.

With the wisdom of reaching the "golden years," I've decied rejection isn't all bad. It is an opportunity!

I will be a student for as long as I am able to read. I love learning new things. In fact, I am taking Beginning Biblical Hebrew so I can study scripture better. I am learning new things everyday via the Internet. including new ways to use this cyber-space technology.

So rejection can be an opportunity to learn, to tighten up my writing, to recognize what my readers are searching for, to fine tune my submissions.

Finally, I appreciate rejections of my writing, especially when they say why, versus nothing. (I have to admit, I don't like the unknown. Tell me why then I can improve.)

Life's rejections can be harder to cope with.One thing to understand is they are not always personal. Sometimes it is just the wrong time... the wrong place... or someone is having a bad day that's not associated with you at all.

One rejection that knock the wind out of my sails was when I was fired for being too compassionate. Excuse me? Isn't that what Hospice nursing is all about? Once I could stand back & be more objective, I realized why I was actually fired; and that three other good nurses had been fired in the few months I'd been there. We were all due for raises. We were a means of balancing the budget. As long the administrator could keep hiring, she was paying low salaries. And her means of coping with complaints was either "she's new" or by firing that person to keep the client happy. It didn't matter whether the complaint was legitimate or not.

Who actually had the problem? The administrator. I was a good Hospice nurse. Also I had administrative experience and may have been seen as a threat. Finally, I was hired to solve a problem that had occurred with physicians at various hospitals. I had solved that issue at each hospital.

Once I calmed down, my sadness was for my patients, who would never know why I didn't return. As for me,
another opportunity came, which resulted in a better paying job with set hours and much less stress.

If I am rejected for being too compassionate, so be it. That's a trait I want!

Being rejected, as a writer, is part of the "dues" most writers pay so maybe I'll consider getting one of those t-shirts. What do you think?