Day #2- Daily Post Challenge

Late last Thursday night, my writing coach (whom I haven't worked with since last Summer) sent me a link to a Parenting Journalist Conference which started the following morning. My immediate thought was "How dare she send me a link to an event without at least 24 hours notice!" But I soon realized what good fortune it was that she thought to include me at all. Thanks to this conference, I've broken free of the publishing anxiety that plagued me for the better part of a year. 

In February 2020, I pitched a story to Huff Post personal and for the first time ever, I had a proposal accepted. I was on my way to becoming a published writer and that news just lit me up inside. A friend told me she had never seen me smile that big. It was finally the validation I had been working for. 

Then, Covid hit and so did all of the delays. I get it. An international pandemic is going to throw people off their game a bit. So, I followed up. And then followed up again. And again. It took her a month and a half to reply after the world shut down.  

I finally sent my essay on Compulsive Overeating to her on April 29th. When I didn't hear back, I followed up a little over a week later on May 8th and then on May 11th, she replied that she received it and would take a look as soon as she could. That was the end.

I didn't follow up at all after that and I never heard back from her. Almost one year later, looking at how the events played out, it's seems pretty clear that a reasonable person would have continued checking back repeatedly like I had been doing all along, but instead I froze.

She finally read my essay and found out it was total crap. It's not worth $250. It's so bad that she couldn't even bring herself to reply to me. 

That's the story I told myself. I've never been able to take an objective look at how things transpired. Looking back, that's the crap story. Maybe I need to give myself grace, too. I was also dealing with probably the single most devastating world event in recent history. I guess the good news is, it's still not too late to re-write the ending.