Rejection

Another day, another rejection letter. I’m getting used to it. At first, job hunting was fresh and exciting. Even a rejection letter was a thrilling event. But as the sad responses piled up week after week, it became depressingly tedious. And like the stages of grief, I find myself moving through a wide range of emotions: anger, frustration, sorrow, self-pity, and a nagging sense that I’m an old fart loser. My husband remembers that one of his college friends papered the walls of his dorm room with rejection letters. Though I don’t possess that kind of in-your-face youthful chutzpa myself, I admire the sentiment.

So - if a sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, it’s time to determine what I’m doing wrong so I can put an end to this depressing spiral. On second thought it might be easier to have a go with corrective pharmaceutical intervention. Hmm . . .

Permit me to provide some background. Some years ago I notched up a bachelor’s degree in business with a concentration in finance from a highly regarded institution (Go Pack!). 4.0 GPA. Suma Cum Laude. Voted Most Likely To Succeed. Doesn’t that sound promising? So when I saw a job post for a part-time entry-level bank teller, I thought my prospects were pretty good. Apparently not.

It seems I made one very big mistake. Thinking my stellar achievements would safely simmer on the back burner (forgive my hubris), I detoured off my personal Yellow Brick Road for a few years to focus exclusively on raising a family. The career counselors advise against this. By the time I returned to the twenty-first century version of Oz, the Emerald City had been turned into a Super Wal-Mart. Dorothy was all grown up and working back in Kansas at the helm of a venture capital firm. The Wal-Mart is not hiring. (I checked.) Dorothy has outsourced HR to the same people who turned me down for the bank teller job. It’s discouraging.

Fortunately I’m the kind of girl who believes in happy endings. If the final step in the grief process is acceptance, I’m ready to accept whatever opportunities lie before me. But I’m hanging on to the pharmaceuticals just in case.