“You Can’t Always Get What You Want…” And Sometimes that’s a Good Thing
As Mick Jagger sings in the classic Rolling Stones song, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Sometimes that can be a good thing.
I was happy to see Jennifer Hudson win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress last night. It’s not that I would say I am a fan, although I do appreciate her talent, and I did not even see “Dreamgirls.” What struck me about her win is the sweet irony. At the start of her speech, she said, “Look what God can do.”
For those of you who may have been living on a deserted island during the past year, Hudson was the contestant voted off before she deserved to be during the third season of “American Idol” and was told something along the lines of “I believe you are out of your league,” among other comments during her run on the show. Then, she went out to beat some 700 or so others to land the part in “Dreamgirls.” Her Cinderella story is something that I am drawn to.
I think it is a good lesson for how you can’t always get what you want, but that sometimes what you wanted in the first place may not ultimately be the best thing for you. She lost AI, but won an Academy Award!
Being a writer you get used to rejection. And many times you do not get what you want, and at the time you may wonder, “why am I not good enough?” Or why did someone else get published and I didn’t? It is all a part of the process. There have been many times when I have had article ideas rejected, and even been told “We decided we’re changing our format for our publication,” or “I’m sorry to tell you that I won’t be able to use any more of your articles. We are having cutbacks and maybe down the line I will be able to get more money to pay authors…” There have also been times when I really wanted to be awarded a project or assignment or win an award and then was very disappointed when it didn’t happen. But then somehow, down the line something better always seems to come along and makes me realize that it wasn’t meant to be and probably a good thing it did not happen because then I would have missed out on a more appropriate opportunity!
Sometimes it can be a good thing to not receive the thing you think you want the most.
