The Sweet Stench of Rejection

I am no good.
I am a dog.
I am...a reject.

But I couldn't be happier.

Let me explain.





Monday, April 21st, the Head Girls Lacrosse Coach at Poly Prep announced the team was going to be the first high school in the country to take part in the "Friends of Jaclyn" organization (www.friendsofjaclyn.org). This group pairs children with brain cancer with girls lacrosse teams that "adopt" the child. Here, "adoption" means the host team serves as "big sisters" to the afflicted child. On Monday, Poly Prep welcomed Lily and her amazing parents (Olivia and Dennis) to our community.
They spoke, along with the founder of Friends of Jaclyn (another Dennis-this one not Lily's father), about Lily's experience with cancer. It was a polite, general conversation that didn't make anyone feel uncomfortable or sad.
It would have been quite impossible to feel sad, though, because of Lily's ebullience. She was a manifestation of the sun: bright, cheerful, radiant, and good for you. She made it clear to all that she loves Snow White, counts pizza as one of her favorite foods, and was excited to be at Poly. Because Lily's only 4 yrs. old, she doesn't understand that her experiences are exceptional, in that they are exceptions to what most people experience most of the time. Therefore, she didn't seem to feel strange or self-conscious about being celebrated by the Poly community. She might even think that everyone has had such an experience.
I won't get into the details much beyond that and, frankly, Olivia, Dennis, Lily, and Dennis don't bother much with them, either; though they're well aware of Lily's circumstance, it doesn't fit Lily's vivaciousness to pay too much attention to medical charts, drug trials, or approaching MRIs when there's a perfectly good playground nearby and lots of new friends to meet.
Hopefully, you now understand why, when I got home Monday night and found my rejection letter from the James Madison Foundation, I wasn't terribly disappointed. I might have been, however, if I hadn't been able to make it to yesterday's lacrosse game (a 15-6 Poly victory) where I took the following pictures: