Failure and rejection are two distinct things. Rejection is refusal to have, take, recognize, grant, accept. Failure is not doing something that is required or expected. Failure means you've messed up--it's your fault. On the other hand, rejection is exogenous: to be rejected is a passive thing where someone else somewhere else decides whether you are worthy of something. It leaves you perhaps feeling brushed off, scorned, maybe even ostracized. But that's still better failure's aftertaste of ineptitude and effeteness. You feel useless, unsatisfactory, like you're incapable. You beat yourself up because, really, there's no one to blame but yourself. At least with rejection, it doesn't always have to be your fault. "Maybe they were just looking for something else," you say, "but I don't think there's anything wrong with me."

Rejection I've had to deal with many times and I've even become used to it in a sense. I know how to deal with it. And though each blow still stings, I've become practised at picking myself up off the floor. Not so much so with failure. Things have come relatively easily for me and when facing major obstacles, I've been fortunate enough to always come out unscathed and ready for the next challenge. So unaccustomed to failure, perhaps I haven't had occasion to think that much about just how much rejection and failure differ. Alas, the time to ponder such things has come. And once I've started, I realize that they are indeed quite different creatures. But despite all of their differences, perhaps there is one thing in common between the two. While they may signify different things and make me feel different things, they both need time: time to accept, time to cope, and time to move on.