Hi all,

I live! It’s been a while since I last posted so I have a bunch of updates to get to. First, last fall I applied to 5 MFA programs. Three in California, one in Texas, and another in Virginia. I’ve been anxiously waiting to hear back from each so that I could make some serious life decisions. Earlier this month, I started to receive responses from each school, in a very slow trickle. The first was a rejection. Now, before you start thinking that this is a post about “oh what a pity, this young writer was rejected,” I want you to watch this clip:

I watched this video each month between December and March to prepare my little writing nerves for the responses. And it worked. When I received my first rejection, I’m proud of myself. If you know me in real life (IRL), you know that I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to anything written. Part of the reason why I don’t post as often as I should, to be perfectly honest, is because the articles I wish to post aren’t “perfect.” I see grammar errors, leaps of logic, silly random ticks of my own personality (like going off on tangents and losing my original point), and several other not-perfect elements. I forget that I started this blog in the hopes to reach out to other artists, beginners and professionals, and to show the process of a young writer growing into their own skin. I fear rejection. It is scary. Yet, what Frank says is true. Rejection is good for you and really awesome.

I’m reminded of some Japanese cartoons (anime for other Otaku’s out there) where the main character gets beaten a lot. A HELL of A LOT. They never give up, though. Each beat down teaches them something new. Random fact: Starbucks was rejected as a business plan a way over 100 times. The guy who started it, never gave up and now its everywhere! Rejections, then, aren’t a sign to you to give up; they are a sign to keep trying, to keep playing with your “upper-limits.”

For the first time, in a long time, I felt like I am playing with the big boys now. It also helps knowing that for every rejection, an acceptance is out there. It is a mathematical issue: the number of attempts is directly related to the number of successes. The more attempts, the more successes. So far, I received 2 rejection letters and 1 acceptance. The acceptance came from a private school, to boot, which I never dreamed of applying to in the first place (one for money and two because I thought private schools are so how “tougher” than public). I have to wait on the other two schools before I can make a decision, but whatever happens I feel more prepared to face admission decisions than I ever did before.

With that in mind, I’ll be signing off.

Happy creating.