If you are going to try and pursue a life as any kind of artist, including as a writer, you're going to face lots of rejection, disappointment, and moments of self-doubt. Ultimately, even if you achieve success, you may end up in deep difficulty, without the means to support yourself or your family, and without more practical skills valued by the marketplace.
That is the brutal reality, both in this society and most others. What is tricky, for parents, is how to handle your children's dreams to be writers and artists, particularly when you've been able to ascertain that they truly do have talent.
My youngest was rejected by the School of the Arts, San Francisco's highly competitive public high school, for the first round of auditions just before Christmas. It fell to me to tell her this bad news long-distance, by phone, as she was traveling with her mother.
I know it was a crushing rejection for a 14-year-old who had spent the past year carefully preparing her portfolio of 12 pieces.
Since then, she has not been willing to talk about it.
The school offers a second round of auditions in March, if she wants to pursue that route toward a possible future acceptance.
What complicates her decision is the knowledge that this is partly about gender. SOTA, as a public school, has historically had a gender imbalance -- many more girls than boys. Thus the boys who apply have a better chance at a first round audition than the girls.
Thus most girls apparently are rejected the first time around, as a technique meant to sort out who is really committed and who is not.
But that is a lot for a 14-year-old to digest as she decides on a most difficult decision. In a larger sense, however, it is a perfectly accurate microcosm of what she will face should she decide to continue traveling along what Robert Frost labeled the path "less traveled."
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