How do you imagine it would feel -- after six years of working hard at a career you wanted, and finally finding a genuine shot at getting your chance to share your writing with a wide audience -- only to be told that the thing you worked so hard on is not considered to have any quality? This became all too real thing for me this past Monday when I got feedback that I had done so poorly on a 60,000-word piece of writing, that my services would no longer be needed by a client. Not only had the pay been really nice, but it was also my first big opportunity to have some of my writing published with my own name on it. And now I will have to find a different client to help make that aspiration possible.

In my college Creative Writing class, I was told that the road to being published was no small feat. I have no fantasies about this being an easy job. I have been passed over dozens of times for writing, but the rejection and loss of this great opportunity still is a heavy blow.

Though some don't make the cut, first off, all that means is that we need rise to meet the next great opportunity. Along the way to whatever it is we want to do so badly, we all come to deal with the situation I find myself in. Doors are slammed in our faces, and we find ourselves deprived of what could be great opportunities because those hiring don’t think we measure up to the task. But as the great Rocky Balboa said, “It’s not about how you hard you hit, it’s about hard you can get hit and keep going.”

Perseverance after failure is what drives the truly passionate towards their goal. It’s what leads them to success. You can trip up at any time during the work, but whether it’s your first day on the job or six years down the road, it is the confidence you have in your ability and the passion for the end goal that determines whether there is fight to keep going.

I hope that you, dear reader, have a passion that gets you out of bed and off to pursue something that will make you happy for the rest of your life. It may not be completely doable now, but I hope someday there will be many opportunities available that you can seize and do well in. The best things in life are achieved by those who allow failure to be merely a part of the process.

Thanks to the help of my uncle, I was able to make my first short film in fall 2015.

So, yes, I have been denied at one gateway that held lots of promise to take me to great places, but there is light shining through the windows of my other opportunities. An original story that I am planning to turn into an audio series is gaining a fair amount of steam through the flood of volunteers to help out. Friendships made in my university’s theater department are allowing me the chance to make a web series alongside some very knowledgeable cameramen, directors and actors. And on top of those two fruits ripe with potential, I will go back to the site where I got that prestigious job, and keep on applying. Writing is my passion, and I am going to put in six more years if that’s what it takes to get my next potential big break.