#rejection letters

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Right back 'atcha.

[crmsnmth]

What the Fuck Do You Know?

Another email dressed up like kindness lands soft in my inbox like it's afraid to bruise me with what it really means

"We regret to inform you…"

Yeah, I know You always do

You regret me like a bad investment like a song you didn't finish because it got too honest

You say "not the right fit" like I'm a shirt that shrank in the wash like I don't bleed into every line just to make it here

Tell me what the fuck do you know about the nights I stayed up arguing with blank pages losing every time?

What do you know about clawing something out of nothing just to have you skim it between coffee sips and boredom?

I imagine you there half-listening to a life you'll never have to live deciding in seconds what took me months to survive

You thank me for my submission like I handed you a napkin like it didn't cost me any sleep sanity pieces I'm not getting back

And sure you wish me luck

You always wish me luck like it's currency you don't have to spend

Maybe I'm bitter maybe I'm exactly what you said not quite right

But at least I showed up with something real in my hands

You?

You showed up with a template a delete key and just enough distance to never have to care

So keep your regrets your polite little no's your hollow well-wishes dressed like grace

I'll take the silence instead

At least silence never pretends it knows me

[jacobwren]

[arrynnat]

Magazines: *send me rejection letters through email*

Me:

[thephdpensieve]

If you crash and burn trying, it's still going to be better than if you never tried at all.

- Roderick Mackinnon

Rejection hurts. It twists the knife which my self-doubt stabbed into my gut. It made me bleed confidence until I was drained.

The first three of the four pictures here are rejection letters of three very successful scientists: Einstein, Ratcliffe and Krebs.

And the fourth is my first rejection letter of 2022. It's also the second rejection for the same fellowship: to do a year of my PhD abroad. The first time I was broken - because I gave my absolute best and was so hopeful. The rejection knocked the wind out of me. I was sad for weeks. And I decided I'm never applying again.

Came this year's cycle, I was advised by my mentor to try again. I wondered why I should. I realised that the application process gave me so much: I came up with my very own research idea and it got accepted for collaboration, I learnt to write a grant proposal from scratch, I got the chance to collaborate with one of the best scientists in the world. All just because I tried.

So I said, let's try a little better this year. I sat down and criticised my last-year's application, got help from three of my mentors.

I applied. I wasn't as hopeful I was as last year, because I learnt about their selection process.

I was rejected.

But it didn't hurt that badly.

This try gave me the opportunity to take up that proposed collaborative work, in spite of me not getting the fellowship. Yes! The professor agreed to work with me remotely!

Better an 'oops' than a 'what if'.

Overcoming the fear of failure is sooo important. Had I given up, I wouldn't have gotten a new direction to my research!

I put my rejection letter among that of those amazing scientists, because when they were rejected, they would have been like me - disappointed and hurt. And like them, I am not going to give up.

[dvogcomics]

That is a mean spelling bee.

[ineffably-good]

Rejection Letter #3

Short, simple, to the point.

[bookwormchocaholic]

Is today rejection day? I've gotten five rejection letters thus far and the day's not over yet. Let's see if I can beat my personal worst of receiving seven, and see if I can get eight!