I haven’t been rejected too many times yet, but that’s just a reflection of not submitting enough. Last night I got rejected by the Medill School of Journalism’s Minority Writer’s Summer Magazine program.
I’m waiting for the disappointment to set in since I thought I had a 65% chance of getting it. But it’s tough to be upset when you’ve got a book coming out the same week they tell you “No.” Maybe because I’m only half Chinese, I only had half a chance to get in. I’m not serious of course. The downside is I won’t get to spend a summer in Chicago with a near guarrantee of getting a magazine article published. The upside is that I’ve got a query all ready to pitch, (I had to prepare one for the application). Susan, who opened the letter that came to the TT office said it was a super nice rejection. I’ll look at it tomorrow when I get to San Francisco, but only AFTER I pick up and oggle the fresh copy of Sand.
A “super-nice rejection.” Is that an oxymoron?
Not meant to be, Jen. Move on with your Bra book and keep going – look back only to smile.
One day, that school will find out that they rejected Jen Leo…they will then say, “you mean THE “Jen Leo”. They will ask you to speak at the graduation ceremony as the keynote speaker. You will say yes, as long as they pay your $25,000US appearance fee.
Screw ’em if they don’t see you as worthy.
I am pissed and hurt that they rejected you. Moreso than if it were me. I guess I just see you as super-worthy.
I just know this means there’s some sort of very cool opportunity coming up that you’ll now be able to have. Sorry to be so disgustingly optimistic 😉 {{{Jen}}}
Everyone makes mistakes, including the Medill School of Journalism’s Minority Writer’s Summer Magazine program.
Look ahead, Jen.
Wow, thanks for all the nice comments pals. You’re upset enough for me too, which I haven’t been yet. I’m at TT, excited about the book, press release, just had lunch with a gambling friend in gorgeous sunny weather, been getting tons of compliments how great I look —so I’ve already been having a great day and then I see all these nice comments from you all! I might as well go check out that letter now. I had forgotten about it. What I can tell you is that they had 350 applicants and 10 people got it. And after reading the essays for Backpack Nation applicants, I can see where exactly I fell short on. I’d have to reread what I sent, but I probably didn’t emphasize minority stuff enough. It’s tough because I don’t feel like one, haven’t been slighted like so many others, and have actually had plenty of opportunities. I hope that the applicants they chose, really needed this to get their foot into the industry. From the letters of rec that Larry and James wrote for me, one could conclude that I might not need their help. I’m not trying to brag, it’s just one way of looking at it. They might not have seen me as needy if their true intentions were trying to help. I don’t know. Let me go look at the letter.
OK, well, wrong again. They picked people with MORE experience than me. LOL. More journalism experience anyway. And that makes sense because I don’t have ANY. Well, I doubt I would’ve put my few local feature articles from the Tahoe Daily Tribune way back a decade ago. Fair enough. They wanted journalists, and I haven’t done any of that. Which is why I was applying. I wanted a thorough class on magazine writing. Ah well, thanks again for your support. I do have a good query letter which I think I’ll turn in. If I get the assignment then we can all be happy because that’s — to get that story published.