rejection

The first rule: Unrequited love sucks. The second rule took regrettably longer for me to get a handle on: My unilateral crush was not this guy’s problem.

Once I became a body positive writer and speaker, I told the story of that night on podcasts and in interviews as an example of the sort of reaction I was afraid of prior to my video about my excess skin going viral. Every time, the interviewer made a comment about how Dana was “the ugly one,” not me. And every time, I told them I didn’t want her to be vilified or insulted.

Rejection is regrettably a constant part of life. And it’s hard not to internalize it as a denouncement of your entire being.