Being Rejected

Here I am, almost two weeks into this new year we have. I am drinking a Coke Zero and neglecting to water my cactus. What are you doing?

I have the idea that if I blog more this year, I will be more likely to stick with my other goals, like writing more (at least 200 poems this year, I hope), reading more (at least 52 books this year, I hope), and submitting more poems for publication.

Over the past few months (okay, let's be realistic--years) I've let myself get lazy. I looked at my Submittable account and realized that I had ZERO outstanding magazine submissions. A few years ago I undertook a project with my friend Tanya to try and garner 100 rejections throughout the "submission year," which meant starting September 1 and ending August 31 of the following year. This year, it's my goal to get 100 rejections again, but during the calendar year.

It's tough hearing people say no to you. It reminds me of when I was a kid and wanted so badly to have friends sleep over, and would get very excited but was told no. How sad, right? I just wanted to paint nails and braid hair and talk about boys. Okay, I never did those things. My friends and I recorded fart noises on my Talkboy and played them back in slow motion while strangers walked by.

Either way, good thoughts for this year of being told no a lot. I've already sent out around twenty submissions this year, and have been told no three times so far. Here's to rejection!