Rejection is a bitch, you don’t have to be
Rejection hurts, for everyone.
That moment when the proposal is met with a shake of the head, a roll of the eye, or a drink in the face, and the cold reality/ sticky drink sets in. You didn’t get what you wanted.
Whether the admittance letter you were hoping for; that friend you wanted to see who just couldn’t find the time; that job you wanted but didn’t get; that person you wanted to date—or sleep with—not being interested.
Your ego is put to the test when receiving such dejecting news, but remember that your defining moment is when you control your feelings and ensure that your bruised pride does not get the best of you.
The most important part, and biggest show of character, is how you deal with it.
I’ve been both the rejector and the rejected, and let me tell you it can get ugly on both ends of the spectrum.
Picture a guy in a bar or a nightclub: he walks up to a girl, chats her up, buys her a couple of drinks. He assumes there is chemistry here and that she will come home with him for sexy times.
Alas, no, the girl thanks him for the drinks and makes it clear she is not interested. He tries a little bit longer and eventually is dissuaded.
He goes back to his friends and laughs about what a bitch or tease—whatever derogatory term you want to use—she is because she does not want to sleep with him. These mini dramas play out as if spectator sports all over the city, and on the Internet, with rejections from those undeserving of said slanders, and bitter reactions from the rejected.
Now let’s look at the flip side of the coin. What if a guy were to reject a girl?
Hurrah for our society where women may be sexually forward and still perceived as feminine and desirable, but a 100 per cent success rate is still inexistant and rejections can easily range from, “no thank you,” to, “no. K thanks bai.”
When out with my fellows, sometimes proposed sexual encounters don’t lead to delight, as my anaconda sometimes just don’t want none. However, exercising my personal freedom of choice can lead to insults not only on my gender, but directly on my person too.
I have personally been told that I am “not the man for the situation” for not being interested in a woman. I have also been told that I am a “submissive male,” which is what my aloofness and lack of interest were confused with.
Ultimately, rejection can have ugly consequences. Everyone has their moments of being hurt, but it really comes down to the what Kenny Rogers said in his song “The Gambler”: “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away and know when to run.”
Knowing how to fold gracefully—without sinking to childish insults—is a surefire way to not only walk away with your head held high, but to also exit the situation with more maturity than an 18-year-old first-time clubber.
Keep face when feeling the cold burn of rejection, and try to remember through the haze of dollar-tequila shots that your stinging ego does not entitle you to insult those who have turned you down. Similarly your own pain is in no way a justification to cause harm with those that have rejected you, ever.
Turn, walk away, and let it go. As your parents said since before you could walk, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
