Rejections 312 - 316

Yeesh. Here's a good post of solid rejection. 

I submitted a story to Ploughshares Solos. Declined. 

Then I decided to do some end-of-year clean-up. 

I realized an essay I'd submitted to both Lucky Peach and Vice Munchies had run out of their submission time, aka the submission guidelines say, "If you haven't heard from us in X amount of time, we couldn't use your work."

I also check in at two places where an essay had been in submission for a good long time. Guernica rejected the essay within a couple hours.

Willow Springs had kindly suggested some edits, which I'd submitted back to them, but they still declined, encouraging me to send more stories or essays, which I did. 

I guess I was asking for it in checking in on submissions, but yesterday felt a little rough on the hopefulness front. 

UNTIL I saw my adorable nephew perform in his kindergarten holiday sing which was the cutest and most hopeful thing ever. Kindergarteners were performing with third- and fourth-graders, and I cried when watching the older kids perform because it seemed so clear how soon most of those kids would be too embarrassed to comply with singing holiday songs in front of a group of people. My sister was like, "You don't even have a kid up there. Why would you cry?" Doesn't matter that the kids weren't mine. The sentiment holds.