One thing that annoys me about fellowships, grants, publications, jobs, and creative opportunities isn’t rejection.
Rejection is part of life.
What gets me is the subtle implication that their ecosystem is the ecosystem.
You know the email:
“While you weren’t selected this time, we’d love for you to stay connected. Subscribe to our newsletter. Follow our work. Pitch us in the future.”
And every time I read it, part of me wants to respond:
“Respectfully, you are not the only opportunity available to me.”
I don’t mean that in a bitter way.
I mean it in a grounding way.
Because sometimes institutions accidentally talk as if they are the center of the universe when they’re actually one star in a much larger galaxy.
One fellowship rejected me.
Another funded me.
One publication passed.
Another said yes.
One grant didn’t work out.
Another opened a door I didn’t even know existed.
I’ve learned that no organization gets to define my future.
No hiring manager.
No grant panel.
No publication.
No fellowship.
They’re opportunities.
Valuable opportunities.
But they are not Opportunity itself.
The older I get, the more I realize my career is an ecosystem, not a gate.
And ecosystems survive because there are many paths forward.
Not just one.