I hope that you had a lovely memorial day weekend, Friends! Mine left me very satisfied (holla BBQ bonanza) and grateful for the sacrifices of those brave souls who protect our freedom everyday.
Despite a holiday packed with amazingness though, I have to admit to feeling a bit blue. An opportunity that I had really been hoping for did not pan out in my favor. While I'm not usually one to over-share about the things that get me down, I think that there may be someone else out there who could benefit from this one. You see it's easy to be all "grow tougher skin, blah, blah, blah," but we all know that the reality of rejection is that it is almost impossible not to take it personally. Add your art into the mix and, well, shiz gets real.
In the midst of my wallowing though (seriously, just call me Ophelia), I came across author Neil Gaiman's commencement address at the University of the
Arts. He recommended dealing with the problem of failure by envisioning requests for help (think: grants, fellowships, commissions) as messages in a bottle. You would be insane to think that every message that you toss out there would be answered. Instead you have to start thinking about the odds in terms of hundreds of messages that need to be sent out for every project. Somehow that visual makes each potential opportunity a lot less precious.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go rinse out a few new bottles;)
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