Should've Listened to Mom...

It's a brand new day.

I wore my sunglasses this morning and the sky kept getting more and more blue as the morning unfolded. This follows yesterday. A day of every kind of snow you can imagine – heavy, light, mixed with rain, hard hail, and even an inch of accumulation at one point. But today is perhaps the brightest day that ever existed in Wrangell.

Today is also a brand new day for another reason. It’s officially the day after my first rejection:


Hi Lisa

I finally had time to read your submission. I don't think we will be able to use it however. It's well written, but for trips like this, its just really hard to get the feel we want in an article if you were not actually on the trip yourself and can give first-hand descriptions.

Please keep us in mind though for future articles if you plan to go on any adventures yourself, or if there are any issues you are interested in writing about...

Rebecca Luczycki

Senior Editor
Alaska Magazine

As rejections go, I think this is a pretty good one. An encouraging rejection.

Attempt

During my freshman year at Trinity I was desperate to transfer. My choice school was Barnard in New York City. While I was in the midst of applying, my mom told me not to tell too many people about it, in case I didn’t get in. Well, as was usual, I didn’t listen to my mom. I told, I think, everyone. The librarian, the mother of one of my high school friends who I ran into at the library, everyone. And then I didn’t get in (which turned out to be a blessing). Ever since, I’ve tried to heed this piece of my mom’s advice more in my life. I see the value of not telling people certain things, or at least waiting, because who knows if it’ll work out.

I’m going to be foolish and not listen to mom again – just this one time. I shouldn’t say anything until it’s a done deal, but I just have to. This pre-moment seems monumental enough to share.

I just submitted a story to Alaska Magazine.

I’ll back up. In February, I had sent a story query and was given the go-ahead to write it up. Of course, the editor said there were no guarantees that they would buy it, but there was a good chance as she figured I was a good writer (I guess we’ll see about that).

So I’ve been working on this story for the past two weeks and I just finished it up, attached it to an email, and hit send. Just now. I shouldn’t be telling people about this until the magazine actually buys it, but I had to. It’s not a huge, famous magazine. It’s not necessarily a story that I think shows off my best writing. It may turn out that they don’t think it’s worthy of publishing. But no matter what, it’s my first real and true attempt at freelance writing. And for this I am proud.