The Gifts of Rejection
As a seasoned perfectionist, it’s taken a long time to let go of other people’s experience of me
I’ve noticed something that tends to happen whenever I am in the middle of a big life transition. I have these once close friendships that fall away, seemingly in an abrupt manner and without any apparent reason. Despite having been ghosted by several friends over the years at this point, I remain newly shocked and surprised with each instance, as it reinvigorates a long-held knee-jerk tendency of self-recrimination every time. I recently experienced an example of this right around the moment I committed to embracing a creative part of myself that I had long ago abandoned.
Now the reality is that people change and some friendships are fulfilling but only for a certain time in our lives. People come and go. Sometimes others won’t like the you that you have become. This just is what it is.
Intellectually, I understand this can sometimes happen when we decide to embrace the kind of transitions that are in alignment with the truest versions of ourselves. A phoenix rising from the ashes. A snake shedding her skin. But it still sucks, feeling unexpected and fresh whenever it happens.
What I’ve learned to be the most interested in is not the event…
