Respecting Rejection.

"No good writer sails through their career without being rejected."

I have heard some version of this quote since my very first creative writing class in high school. Back then I thought it was easy. I always knew I had a talent for writing, whatever that means. In high school I became enamored with the idea of being a writer...not really factoring in the vigorous work and thick skin I had yet to acquire to be able to follow through on such a dream.

But here I am, folks. Over Thanksgiving break I sent out my story to eleven major literary journals in an attempt to get my story (the one about my mother, my cat, and that asshole) published. It was thanks to the urging of one of my favorite professors that made me even think to send this story out in the first place, and I have sent out my story in the hopes of getting my first pub. I have been warned, as I have already said, since high school that rejection is inevitable when it comes to sending out a story. In the month and a half since I sent out my story, I have received three rejection slips in the mail. Two were the generic "we're sorry to inform you" slips. One began in that standard way, but at the bottom there was a handwritten note scribbled: "Good story. Send more stuff in the future."

I'm saving all of these rejections. Not in some masochistic attempt to make myself feel bad and cry over them in weak moments when I realize my writing "career" is more of a practice, a hobby, a dabbling. It's more in a way to respect the journey, the writing process, the climb. It's good to be met with resistance sometimes, because maybe I will get published. You have to know what it's like to feel bad and insecure to know what it's like to feel good and confident, at least this is what I'm going to keep telling myself. Here's to starting off 2012 respecting the good and the bad parts of life, because you must know one to know the other.

Namaste, my readers.