User blog comment:RuckusQuantum/Ruckus's Story/@comment-28266772-20160906154407

Personal failures are a shit reality of being human. We all hold ourselves to certain standards and it can be hard for other people to understand why they matter so much to us. Still, it helps to share, so here are some of my own personal failures for you to consider.

I have been writing since I was about twelve and it's taken me a long time to be half-decent. I wrote my first book at sixteen and submitted it to like thirty agents, and even more publishers, and it ended with one writing back and basically explaining that I was not good enough to be a professional writer. I had never been more devastated in my life until...

My application to Oxford University was rejected. I passed the initial written exam but when I entered my first interview I couldn't stop talking. I literally could not stop. It was unending. When I left I was sick, and realized I hadn't answered a single question asked of me. In my second interview they asked me why I wanted to study psychology and I asked for a minute to collect myself (hoping to avoid the last problem I'd encountered before). Except that "minute" lasted ten of the fifteen allotted for the interview. I was rejected despite other members of my family having been accepted - this was perhaps the hardest thing to move past. I held myself to a high standard and, to put it honestly, I fucking loathed failing where others in my family had so effortlessly succeeded.

Trust it when people say that getting back up from a bad fall is more important than not falling in the first place. This is the real reason behind my posting some of my own personal failures. Basically you gotta chill the fuck out. I'm 24 and I've only just started writing things that aren't pure horse-shit. You're a talented graphic artist, and a talented writer (you write with more fluency than most natural English speakers - if you're curious visit dailymail.co.uk and click any article and then scroll down to the comments - every one of those retards is born and bred in the UK). I'm not telling you to relax your high standards. Higher standards will continue to elevate you throughout your life - but you should take each failure with a badge of pride, and persist regardless of what others have to say. They have no bearing on you and how good you really are. That's up to you to decide, because it's up to you to decide when to quit.

What matters more than anything else, in my opinion, is that when your stories were deleted you kept writing. That, more than any other quality, is what defines people who are good at what they do. You persist when everyone else calls it a day. Every day we see users create an account, submit a story, get it deleted, and then they slink away into nothingness for all time. What good is that for them or the community? It takes real effort to learn, and adapt, and the fact that you willingly engaged with the community long after having your stories deleted demonstrates to me a hardcore willingness to endure and persist. You should be proud of what you have learned and what you are willing to do to succeed.

It's taken me over ten years to start really integrating a lifetime of creative learning. Only now do I actually think when I write. Only now do I integrate my understanding of plot structure and language into my process. And as someone studying neuroscience let me make it clear that your brain isn't done growing. You may feel like you're smart, but you're only going to get smarter. You may feel like you understand everything, but there's so much more beneath the surface. Finish school, go to uni, learn, mature, adapt, and persist. You'll find that the failings of today are things that you'll be doing in your sleep come four or five years.

Also fuck Jake from reddit - trust me there's a reason he's putting 14 year olds down on the internet for fun and it's probably because he's a grade A fuckwad of a loser. I can't even begin to imagine how sad and spiteful that sort of person has to be but he sounds like a rectal prolapse came to life Pinnochio-style and decided to share its opinions on the internet. Also I've seen your deviantart - you're really fucking good.

PS - maybe you will or won't be a writer, or a graphic artist *shrugs shoulders*. I think it's far too early for you to really know where you'll end up. I am, however, 100% certain that whatever choice you make between now and then, that you're commitment and intelligence will mark you as a standout student/employee worthy of praise.