Wildly Rejected Weeks 16, 17, 18, 19 Update

What happens when rejection collides with grief, an empty nest, and a completely new life?

In this deeply personal Wildly Rejected: Becoming the Bison update, Lauren catches up on weeks 16–19 of her 1,000 Rejection Challenge. She reflects on saying goodbye to her beloved dog Georgie, watching her son leave for college, moving away from Cincinnati, and beginning again as a full-time Key West resident—all while feeling caught in the “ooey-gooey” middle of transformation.

Along the way, she shares the sting of rejection from the Fantasy Fest poster contest, NASA Social, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and a literary publication—as well as the surprising gift of receiving constructive feedback. But the challenge is also beginning to mean something new. Her latest asks aren’t only about awards, sales, and recognition; they’re about friendship, volunteering, conservation, creativity, and finding her place in a new community.

This episode is a reminder that falling behind doesn’t mean failing. Sometimes becoming the bison simply means giving yourself permission to grieve, take a break, pull your foot out of the quicksand, and keep moving forward—one small step and one brave ask at a time.

Current challenge stats:

• 167 total asks
• 39 accepted
• 77 rejected
• 31 in review
• 16 awaiting a response
• 2 waitlisted
• 2 other

Until next time, unplug, get outside, and see what develops.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Wildly Unplug, the podcast where we unplug, get outside, and see what develops. I'm your guide Lauren. This segment is Wildly Rejected, aka Becoming the Bison. This is gonna be weeks 16, 17, 18, and 19. I know it has been it's been a minute since I've been on here and we're trying out Riverside.

studio so this is why we have video today if you're watching this on youtube and we're gonna play around we're gonna do you know present over perfect i am going to be reading from my blog kind of ad living the last gosh month of updates that we have so if you're new here the idea behind the challenge is simple instead of running away from rejection

I'm heading straight into the storm like a bison does. The goal is a thousand rejections, inspired by Gabby Carr's challenge, because somewhere hidden inside all the no's are yeses, unexpected opportunities, and lessons I would have never found otherwise. Ugh, I'm gonna be sad.

The picture from weeks sixteen and seventeen on Substack has George.

We had to say goodbye to him. I'm gonna try and get through this without crying, guys.

This is the ooe-gooey part of becoming a butterfly. In the last blog that I did and podcast, I confidently said even with a move, I will be able to keep up with weekly updates. And I have failed at that. I have failed hard. And you know what? That is okay. And we need to teach everybody it's okay to

take a break.

We're not here for a hustle culture and

you know, I'm nowhere near my weekly goal and it's okay to slow down. Life has been a whirlwind. I think I need to give myself permission to live through this transition instead of immediately turning it into another productivity challenge.

When I was moving about a month ago now, I drove by the exact spot that a decade ago I was sitting in traffic on I seventy one South, looking at the Cincinnati skyline in front of me as I drove to work, and I remember thinking that I had everything I had ever wanted.

A great husband, amazing son, the career of my dreams, a cute little house, and this baby blue Jeep Wrangler. And I was completely happy in that moment and I did something that I never used to do. Certainly never used to do enough back then. That was thank God. And over the years that have followed, it felt like God shook everything up and said, There is more in store for you, do not settle.

where you're at. And the journey has not been without heartbreak. There are times that I couldn't understand why things were happening.

In changing the the way they they were.

And

Even now I don't feel like I've emerged the butterfly yet. I feel like I'm still in the ooey gooey gross part of the cocoon or chrysalis where the caterpillar no longer exists, but the butterfly is not fully formed yet either. And that's where I am right now. So about a month ago when I sat in traffic at that exact same spot, looking at the exact same city skyline, with my life looking remarkably different.

I am moving to a city that I absolutely love and adore and have so much fun in and never could have imagined that I would call it home. I'm no longer driving that baby blue Wrangler, but I'm starting my next chapter in another blue vehicle, but this time a Bronco. And as I drove away from that city skyline, I was bawling my eyes out and sad and scared. And I talk to God a lot more frequently these days.

and thank him for everything and even in the uncertain times, 'cause it's all for a reason.

And I felt like I should have been so much happier this time than I was the second time. But here's the thing comfort zones are sometimes too comfortable. And even when we know it's time to leave them, stepping outside them can be incredibly painful. So I felt every ounce of pain leaving Cincinnati. And it still doesn't feel completely real.

I'm still in the transition stage, traveling back and forth between Key West and Fort Myers until my son leaves for college. This was two weeks ago. My son's now in college. I'm now an empty nester.

So a few weeks ago when I was leaving Key West to go to Fort Myers, it hit me that I wasn't heading back to Ohio. I wasn't even traveling halfway back up the state of Florida. Ohio was no longer waiting for me at the end of that journey. For the first time in nearly forty years, I live in a completely different state. And nearly at the same time I'm an empty nester.

And just trying to figure out who I am with out the routines and responsibilities and relationships and familiar places that once shaped that part of my life.

So yes, I have fallen behind a my rejection goal, but I am still putting myself out there. And maybe it's not the season for racing towards the next hundred submissions. Maybe it's just the season for learning who I am right now.

The entire summer schedule revolved around Connor's college orientation. And I believed I was gonna be going. I'm still crying about Georgie. I'm not crying about Connor. That'll probably come later on in this podcast. but I I believed I was going to I I've got my little chihuahua here keeping me company. I believed I was gonna be going to Connor's orientation and

you know, not following him around or hovering over him and, you know, being that kind of parent, but attending the portion that was designed for parents. And Connor didn't want me there. So by the time he reconsidered and tried to add me, it was already too late. And I knew that if I called and pushed hard enough, I could have been added. I would have found a ma way to make it happen.

But I decided I'm no longer forcing myself into places where I'm not wanted. And maybe it's something that he wanted to do for himself. So for me, the orientation represented this neat little closing of a major chapter in my life. And you know, I stayed behind for a year and a half so he can finish school and delaying my full transition into Key West and putting off the chance to build my life and routines. And it feels like

I was missing a major thing of what I envisioned closing that chapter looks like. So instead of staying home and sulking and doom scrolling, I decided to take my own advice and I went outside and I saw it developed. Ha, see what I did there. So I drove about an hour to Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge, and my family has been visiting there.

on vacations for nearly 20 years. So it feels strange to realize that I can now just visit it whenever. So I packed my 600mm lens, brought a large coffee with me and headed out early to search some wildlife. And I saw plenty of cats get. Although no cats made an appearance, I did get to see manatee's mating for about 30 minutes and I feel weird now.

admitting that out loud. It was like National Geographic. I photographed a heron catching a catfish and I even saw a black skimmer doing what the name suggests. It was skimming across the surface of the water. And capturing a skimmer in action has been on my photography bucket list for a long time and I finally got to check that off of the list. So I was happy I put myself out there and

Did something to make me happy. Afterwards, I got to go to the bubble room for lunch, and it's one of the most unusual and fun restaurants around. And then I got to head to Blind Pass to look for shells. I didn't find anything spectacular, but not that that really matters. Simply walking around on the shore and grounding my feet into the sand really just felt rejuvenating.

At one point I stepped into a part of the beach that was eroding away and suddenly my foot sank into the ground like quicksand, like you see in the TV shows in the 80s that they tried to prepare us for and it never happened. But my first thought was, Holy, this is what quicksand in the movies feels like. And then my second thought was that this is exactly what my life feels like right now, like the ground

beneath me is no longer there. I can't return to Cincinnati and step back into my old life, but also I've not fully built a new life yet. I'm just standing around somewhere in between trying to find solid ground while parts of me keep sinking into the unfamiliar. Still, I do not stay stuck. I pull my foot out and kept walking and I think that's the big lesson of the past four weeks is to keep

putting one foot in front of the other. So I did not complete, well, the 40 tasks. And I did not keep up with the blog. But I did move across the country and

Letting go of one of the most significant roles in my life. Missed a moment that I thought was gonna be bringing me closure. But I did have a couple of rejections come in. One of them was from NASA Social for the Roman telescope launch. And that one I thought was gonna be really cool because I lived pretty close. It would have been not very difficult for me to go.

To that one, and I thought it would have been really cool, like you know, walking around with a media badge and a backstage pass, getting to meet other creators and watching the rocket launch from a perspective that very few people get to see. But I wasn't selected. Hopefully, there'll be other opportunities. So no worries. Another one of my rejections was my psychological

Thriller short story out of season was rejected. And they didn't just send a formal letter, they actually gave me feedback, which is honestly a gift to anybody getting any sort of rejection. They wrote, The team has decided not to include your piece out of season in this issue. While they love the gradual peeling back of the narrative, they felt that the characters lacked depth.

At first it was hard to read that because Out of Season is a deeply personal story for me. to me, those characters have incredible depth because I know them well. And I also wanted to leave room for the reader if they were going through a similar situation to be able to put themselves in the shoes of the main character. So that's why I didn't put

too much backstory or n ye I didn't even have names to these characters because I did want it to be like you could put your yourself in those shoes. So after that initial sting wore off, I did realize something that

is the kind of rejection that I can work with. An editor is actually taking time to point me towards a better draft. Not everything everybody creates is going to be gold. It needs to be forged in the fire and constructive feedback during a rejection is the best kind of fire. So I am very, very thankful that they took the time to send some details with that rejection.

So I'm not gonna go over the numbers for weeks 16 and 17. And one of my submissions, because I do have an update, I will go ahead and pull that one up now. So switching over. Again, I do try an update on Substack pretty frequently. So for weeks 18 and 19, I have pictures of my Georgie. If I'm able to play around on Riverside, I'll

I'll put up some pictures here too. He is such he is such a good boy.

So this one starts with we had to say goodbye to our best good boy Georgie. He is such a shining light that his absence has really been noticed, and it's really hard to move on without him. And on top of that, dropping my son off at school, I am officially an empty nester. And now I am living full time in Key West.

So, to say that it's been a lot of transition all at once is an understatement. And I realize that in this season of change, the rejections have stung a little bit more. On top of losing parts of my life, I'm also losing parts of my future that I had envisioned. And I guess that's what happens when we build up expectations. There's also the wondering of what is my life now and what is my purpose. However,

The challenge is encouraging me to take the next steps forward in figuring that out. So since July 30th, I have had 13 new asks, which I didn't talk about in the past about 15 minutes or so. And I have received two new rejections in weeks.

eighteen and nineteen. It's hard to keep all this straight, guys. I'm telling you what.

So this stretch of the challenge is starting to feel different. And it's not just simply putting any of my artwork out to any old place or my artwork and my talent. It's also trying to figure out where I belong now. On July 30th, I submitted a poster design for the twenty twenty six Fantasy Fest poster contest.

And for people that are not from the Key West area, Fantasy Fest is a huge celebration that takes place over a week. It might even be two weeks. Definitely over a week. And my eyes are burning.

Anyway, it's definitely over a week and there's all sorts of craziness that happens, but there are some family friendly parts too. There's parades, there's dance competitions, there's gosh, who's the lady that wore a moo moo in three's company? Mrs. Roper? There's a Mrs. Roper party and everybody dresses up like Mrs. Roper. I mean like it's just

You never know what you're gonna see around any street corner, like somebody dressed up their truck to look like a giant pirate ship. it's just it's part of what makes Key West so unique and special. So I did put a lot of thought and work into creating

My eyes.

Okay. I did put a lot of thought and work into creating that piece. I made a Key West Rooster surrounded by all these different references references to musical icons and iconic musicals. That's the theme for this year. So musical icons, there's a ton of those and then iconic musical, again, tons of those. So I feel like I know that my poster was very crowded.

That's what I should have done. I should have shown I'll update my Substack and I'll also try and put that up here. a picture of my poster design. It it got crowded. There's a bunch of different references to different well, musical icons and iconic musicals. I did it on digital media and it's fun. It's also frustrating and it fully took up a lot of my time. About fifty hours of my time.

And thankfully it was during a time where I was busy moving and I just had my tablet and I can just, you know, at night work on that. So my it wasn't like I was wasting my time. It was giving me something to kind of work towards. So I was thankful for that. And unfortunately I found out on August 10th that my poster was not selected and that one stung. Because that wasn't just another competition. It was something local and an opportunity to contribute to the creative culture of the place that I'm now calling home.

But apparently I was not finished with Fantasy Fest yet. Shortly after that they announced they picked the winner for the poster, they announced that they were accepting theme ideas for 2027. And I submitted an idea. I'm not gonna give the name yet, but it the idea of it celebrates the people stories, ghosts, pirates, musicians, treasure hunters, and wonderfully strange characters who have helped shape Key West. So

The poster might have received a no, but the theme is still in review. I also sent out an introductory email to an art consultant who posted that she was looking for new and emerging artists. I don't really like doing cold outreach. It's not my favorite thing. But yeah, I'd rather kind of paint something online, post it, and hope magically it reaches the right eyeballs and

And unfortunately, that's not how opportunities have worked for me, at least not yet. So I sent the email and I haven't heard anything back yet. I also reached out to Father Nature about potentially appearing on the podcast. No response yet, but the ask still counts. And another important ask was much more personal. I have a friend who's a writer, and I asked her if she could read two of my stories out of season, because like I talked about a little bit earlier.

it was rejected but got some good feedback. So I wanted to see if she saw the same thing that they did. And also my story, The Cost of Being Seen, because that would be something that I would read at the Writers Guild if I finally read it. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't too weird because it does lean a little bit in the fantasy psychological horror angle.

So she said yes. I was very excited about that. So we'll see how she likes it. And it might not be a publication acceptance, but allowing someone to read your work that means something to me is a different form of war vulnerability. And sometimes it's a scarier ask than asking a stranger. It's letting someone see you as you are.

So several of my newest asks to mind things that I care about the most, wildlife, conservation, art, and storytelling. I applied to become a Live Wildly Adventurist, which is an opportunity to help encourage people to experience and protect wild Florida, which hello, that would be perfect. And that application just feels totally aligned with all of my work that I've been doing, you know, through my artwork, photography podcasts and

The book Wildly Unplug. And I believe one of the best ways that people can help care about nature is to show them how to begin, starting small, giving them different ways to participate and helping them to discover the species or landscapes that make them curious. I also applied to be a vendor at Sharkapalooza next year, which could be really exciting. And if I get in, it'd be an incredible opportunity to network.

I entered two pieces of my artwork to save the manatee art competition and reached out to a company about a possible PR opportunity. And then perhaps probably the most meaningful part of this entire update is that I started making asks that have nothing to do with awards, publications, or selling anything. I applied to join the Florida Keys Watercolor Society.

Reached out about volunteering at the SOS Foundation food pantry, contacted Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden about volunteering with her parrots. And while they all kind of seem like they're not related, they are connected because it's going to help me be a part of this amazing community down here. So for a long time this challenge has just been teaching myself to get over the fear of hearing no.

But now it's also helping you to say, I'm here. I want to help and I want to be included. Is there room for me here?

So that that feels pretty vulnerable. On August 18th, I did finally receive a decision from the Pol I Pollock Krasner Foundation grant. I submitted that back in March. It was one of the very first submissions I did, and it was a no. I find that the longer you go without hearing anything, the more likely you are to hear no. So

Apparently the application process is so competitive that they can't even give feedback and rejected applicants don't qualify to reapply for another 24 months. So five months was a long time to carry out a little pocket of hope where somewhere in the back of your mind you imagined it could possibly be a yes.

And when that email arrives, the possibility just disappears that we regret to inform you. for a moment my work sat in the same application pool as artists willing to take themselves seriously enough to ask for that kind of support. So that's still a pretty cool thing to be a part of. So this part of my chapter is about putting down

New roots. And I don't know which of these opportunities will be S and which ones will feel like home, but at least I am taking those small steps forward. So the 1000 rejection challenge stat so far, total ask 167, accepted 39, rejected 77, in review, 31, emailed and waiting for response, 16, waitlisted two and other two.

So I've completed about 16.7% of my thousand ask goal. Still a long way to go. And my acceptance rate is about 33.6%. About one yes for every three decisions. So that's where we're at. Until next time, unplug, get outside, and see what develops. Disclaimer Everything discussed on this blog and podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Whether you are trying a new art technique, exploring the outdoors, or taking your own rejection challenge, please use common sense, follow acceptable laws, safety guidelines, and take responsibility for your own decisions. Stay safe and stay wild.