Hola! Como estas? Muy bien!
I’ve just returned from Cancun paradise after a week of doing as little as humanly possible. It’s true that different people go on vacation for different reasons, and mine this time around was to rest, heal and be lazy. Mission accomplished! I’m at my family home now, getting things sorted – declaring my minor (sociology!), choosing courses, applying to Honours and doing my very first detox! I’ll be outlining the program my mother and I have chosen for you once I’m through the worst of it. It’s fun, makes me feel good about myself, and helps me tick off another of those New Years Resolutions!
Today, though, I’d like to talk about two very important things:
-
Onion Rings (of the healthy-ish, easy, home-made variety. See also: dangerous, delicious and wonderful.)
-
Rejection (of the depressing, necessary and encouraging variety. See also: Tastespotting and self-doubt.)
#1. On Onion Rings
Here is a little ditty about onion rings:
I love onion rings,
Delicious, crispy and brown,
Yogurt is good for dipping,
You’ll never put them down.
Either today or tomorrow, I will post a step-by-step of how to make these beauties. And it will not include any more ditties. Maybe.
#2. On Rejection
Remember when I made that Oreo Cookies n’ Cream cake? And then everyone drooled on their keyboards, including me? Even though I had half in my fridge? Well, yeah. I was really proud of that cake. It took a lot of time, love & energy and it was the first time I took photos intending to submit the post to Tastespotting. I did some food styling, draped my curtains attractively, and took three and a half million photos in forty five different setting combinations. Then I painstakingly put the post together, chose the photos I loved best and submitted my work to the Goddess Divine of food blogging. Held my breath for about 22 hours. Got an email saying the decision had been made! Hyperventilated for about 2 minutes while logging into my account. Saw my beloved submission in the rejection heap.
Boo hoo, woe is me. I’m sure that many of you have suffered much worse rejections in your life, as have I. Somehow, though, this one was a bit different for me: it was more personal. It was my creative work, which heretofore I’d been posting quite joyously on the internet, without much thought as to whether it was “good enough” (took me a year and a bit to get to that point, but still!). And now, I have a website telling me my photo was lit all wrong, the colours were off and that they didn’t want my chubby gray cake polluting their whimsical, airy, delectable home page? Tough pill to swallow. I’d been so confident, and so wrong, and now: so rejected.
Here’s the point of all this nonsense: I was this close to giving up. To saying: “well, whatever Tastespotting, I didn’t want to grace the pages of your website anyways”. To acting like my photography and witty banter will never be good enough. Instead, I tried again. I re-submitted with a different picture. I got re-rejected – it was starting to be fun, this whole rejection thing! I made the decision to treat Tastespotting as a barometer, a source for feedback, a benchmark to my improvement or success. I resolved to submit every single food post I write to the website, get my feedback, and try to improve. Not that I hope to waste the time of the editors, I’ll be submitting things I hope/wish/believe can succeed!
I feel this is an important lesson though. So often, we treat rejection as a dead end, a dismissal, no room for change or improvement. What if we treated it as a compass? Acted like a rejection wasn’t a “no, you’re not good enough”, but as a “no, you’re not good enough yet“? We could treat each rejection as a gift! A chance to improve! A space for re-creation! Sure, it doesn’t take away the initial sting of being rejected, but with a small attitude shift, we may start to view rejection as having an important place in our growth.
This all may seem a bit deep for a Tastespotting submission. I’m my own gal, though, and I do what I want. So, what do you think? Is rejection a harsh necessity? How does it usually make you feel? What do you do in response to being rejected?
I love you, a bushel and a peck,
