Dealing with rejection

Date: 20th November

Rejection is redirection. This is something that I have really had to remind myself this week with a few things going wrong and getting cancelled. It is uncomfortable but an unavoidable part of working in sport journalism. 

While working on this documentary, as expected, there were moments in which plans haven’t come together in the way I hoped. Access fell through, interviews have not materialised and ideas had to be reshaped or abandoned all together. 

Firstly, I hoped to bag an interview with Arsenal journalist Tim Stillman. He has been around the Arsenal Women landscape for years and would have been such an effective voice to include. However, when I approached him for an interview I was left unanswered. After another try in hopes of success, I had to move on to different voices that could add to my piece. It is a difficult setback to come to terms with as a student journalist as often, like in this case, you plan and have many ideas of how the final interview is going to look and sound.

Another instance where I faced rejection was in the form of match accreditation. I had high hopes of securing accreditation for Arsenal’s game vs. Real Madrid at Borehamwood on the 19th November. I had been in contact with Arsenal comms, applied as usual and thought it would be a smooth-sailing success. Fast forward to the day before the match and a rejection email popped up in my inbox. Not ideal. However, to combat the feelings of disappointment, I jumped straight online and bought a match ticket. In the end, I got better visual content from the fan stands that what I would have been able to achieve from the press box as I was in and amongst the Supporters Club itself.

Arsenal beat Real Madrid 2-1. Photo by Olivia Pagden

Lastly, and perhaps the biggest setback I faced, was in the form of last minute interview cancellation. On Tuesday (18th Nov) I was sat on the National Express from Bournemouth to London when I received a last minute message from my interviewee cancelling our in-person interview. I panicked. I didn’t know what to do, my time was wasted and I needed the interview badly, not only for the doc, but to improve my confidence in being able to finish the doc. Luckily, we were able to reschedule the interview but we had to move it online. This wasn’t a big issue in the end as we ended up having a highly successful, comfortable interview from home.  

Overall, learning to deal with rejection doesn’t mean becoming immune to disappointment. But I have learnt that it means recognising progress is not linear and persistence, flexibility and self belief are just as important factors as editorial and journalistic skills.