Validation – Who Needs It? I Wish I Didn’t…

TW: Whining, a little ingratitude, & problemas del primer mundo

I’ll know by the end of the week if THEY want me!

Who are THEY and why would THEY want me?

I shall explain using general terms, my friends. You see, I’m not supposed to reveal THEY’s identity, so I’ll refer to them as the Voldemorts. 

Here’s the drama du jour. (Or, to be honest, the lack thereof.)

Last month the Voldemorts emailed me with exciting news! I had been nominated as a candidate for a bipolar-themed media project affiliated with a dynamic celebrity!

(For those of you on the edge of your seats, it’s NOT Tom Cruise!!!)

As you can imagine, I was very honored to be nominated.

I’ll admit that my fragile ego began swelling just a wee bit!

Then the Sally Field Syndrome took hold of me. The actress Sally Field won an Academy Award for her role in Places in the Heart, and during her acceptance speech she unabashedly told the audience,

“I can’t deny the fact that you like me; right now, you like me!”

After my initial excitement about being nominated faded, I realized that the nomination didn’t guarantee I’d be selected. I was competing against other anonymous candidates and I was required to be interviewed by a panel. 

Yuck.

My interview was a conference call with six Voldemorts, and I tried my best to answer their questions in an articulate, relevant and interesting way. After I had finished I thought, “Oh sh*t, I blew it!”

Ugh. 

Now it’s the waiting game. For over thirty years I’ve been through the waiting game many times for various jobs. While this interview wasn’t for a position per se, the stakes were higher because I bared my soul to that panel. The Voldemorts weren’t analyzing my typing skills – they were examining my life and my personality. My intuition told me I didn’t “wow” them, but my intuition had occasionally made a few plenty of mistakes, and I hoped they’d choose me, warts and all.

At least I’m not totally naive. This project is designed to appeal to specific demographics and I can guess what they are. My “advanced” age of forty-six might be a reason they’ll pass. Other factors that could generate a “thanks, but no thanks” are my diagnosis of postpartum bipolar, my relatively humdrum occupation as a writer/mom, or something lame I said.

See how I’m already bracing for rejection? 

My most recent post about praying to the Unknown Angels comes to mind. I’ve been praying to them for this situation’s best outcome, and that’s all I can do. 

Even when I’m doing well and I’m stable as can be, I don’t handle rejection well.

I’ve written six posts about book proposal rejection and schadenfreude; as  you can see, these are topics that fascinate me. Rejection is rejection, whether it’s for a book proposal or a glitzy-sounding media project. Yes, they’re different degrees of rejection, but they are related. It’s important to remember that rejections can turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

For today, I’m trying hard to psych myself up for whatever the Voldemorts decide.

I’ll keep praying to the Unknown Angels and probably drive them crazy, but I’ll be praying this week for extra strength to handle what comes my way. I can learn from this experience. I can look at it as preparation for more rejection because I’ve begun sending out requests for blurbs for my book. Next year I’ll deal with more rejection because as hard as it is to believe 😉 my book won’t get 100% glowing reviews – just kidding. That’s a given!!!

And you know I’ll blog about it again because that’s how I roll! 

What helps you through rejection?

Any experiences you care to share are welcome here!

Dyane’s memoir Birth of a New Brain – Healing from Postpartum Bipolar Disorder with a foreword by Dr. Carol Henshaw (co-author of The Modern Management of Perinatal Psychiatry) will be published by Post Hill Press in October 2017.