We all experience disappointment
from time to time. A rejection letter from an editor, not getting the promotion
we wanted, being turned down for a date, our favorite team losing the World
Series.
How we deal with disappointment
reveals our character. A rejection letter can do one of two things. It can
galvanize us into sending our manuscript out again—“I’ll show that editor/agent”—or
it can stop us in our tracks. How could someone say my baby is ugly? We can
wallow in self-pity and dejection, determined not to get hurt again. That cute
guy makes up a lame excuse not to go to the prom with us. (Hey, it’s a new world.
Girls don’t sit around waiting. We can ask guys out.) So, what do we do? Sit
home and mope or go with a friend and have a great time? When that job we
wanted goes to someone else, we can double our efforts to make sure The Powers
That Be recognize our worth or bad mouth the person (not nearly as talented as
we are, of course) who got the position—or quietly look for a job with another
company.
Then, there’s the Detroit Tigers.
The euphoria I felt when they became the American League champions—sweeping the
Yankees—started slipping when they lost the first game in San Francisco. Okay, I
said, they’ll come back in the second game. My optimism waned with each loss,
but I didn’t give up hope. They’ll do it in Detroit. Only they didn’t it. You
know how guys yell at the television during football games? Well, that’s me
during baseball. The groans, the moans—you’d think I was giving birth. I could
blame the refs (only their bad calls sometimes helped my team). Blame it on the
nasty weather. What happened to the high 70s while the Tigers were in Frisco?
Besides, the wind carried one Tiger ball right into the stands for a homer. The
play-by-play announcers certainly blasted the players enough. Blaming the
manager or players doesn’t make me feel better. It makes me feel like a grump—which
is why I didn’t write this post last night. I’m trying real hard to keep
thinking “better luck next year”—it's not easy.
For the players, I can’t imagine
how disappointed they must be. Notice, I didn’t say devastated. Devastated is
when you lose your job or fire destroys your home. Devastated is what the
people on the East Coast will be when Hurricane Sandy takes away everything
they own, leaving unimaginable destruction in its wake.
There’s a lot of truth in the
adage that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Some days, don’t you want
to say, hey, I’m strong enough? So, we writers will keep subjecting ourselves to
rejection by sending out those manuscripts. Someone will eventually recognize
our brilliance. <g> We will apply for positions in the hopes that we’ll
land the right one. We won’t let one guy (who wasn’t good enough for us anyway)
stop us from asking another to the prom. We’ll have high hopes for next year
for our favorite team. Or, maybe, we’ll use our disappointment as fodder for
blog posts.
How do you deal with
disappointment?
