Doesn't ANYBODY like me????

Rejection is kind of like stepping in dog poo. It's only going to get you down if you let it. Just scrape off your shoe and keep moving.

I know that this is a some what simplistic view, but it's the only one I have. You see, I was blessed with a father that instilled the "the only wasted day is a day you don't learn something" mentality; a mother who truly believed her children were exceptional and anyone who didn't think so too were stupid; and a sister fought her way tooth and nail to be the best at whatever she choose to do. Talk about good examples for a child.

That's not to say that all rejection to me is water off a duck's back. It's just that I understand that I am the one who gets to choose how I cope with it. I can either curl myself up in the fetal position and bawl whilst stuffing twinkies in my face, or I can wo-man up and move on. Besides, just because one person didn't like what I wrote/created, dosen't mean that no one will. That just wasn't the right person to go to.

I think it helps too that I do SO MANY things. You know what they say "jack of all trades, master of none"; that's me. I always have something different to go to to take my mind off of the rejection, to move on to. Children's story rejected by the publisher? Paint something. A gallery didn't like my painting? Sew a quilt. Quilt wasn't let into the quilt show? Make epoxy-resin jewelry. Visious circle, but it works for me. By doing something "new" I can remove myself from the sting of the rejection and when I'm ready to go back to it, I've moved on, it doesn't bother me anymore.

Heather