Sunday morning, I received yet another rejection letter from a literary magazine. I now officially have more rejections than acceptances.
But I’m not a failure. Very few people ever are. No amount of rejection can change the fact that you had the courage to try. We all have courage, and courage deserves to be celebrated. So even if you get rejected, celebrate the fact that you had enough courage to try.
I still refuse to accept the rejection; I still refuse to believe that it actually means anything. There are thousands of reasons why I got rejected, and all of them give me something I can learn from. But the thing I’m learning right now is to give myself the grace to be unsuccessful. I mean, no human alive could have won at everything. Everyone fails at some point, but the important part is to get back up and eventually win. Eventually you will be successful, even if it’s not how you thought it would be.
When I was planning my high school extracurriculars, I didn’t even think of poetry. I did not believe I would’ve been published in a literary journal other than my school’s (shout out to WISP!). But now here I am, published next to MFA holders and professors. That still means something, even if I’ve accumulated a few rejections.
Therefore, your rejections don’t overshadow your successes, so just keep trying.
Until next time,
Ella Greene
