Which rejection is still telling you who you are?

Some rejections do not end when they are spoken. They continue to live in the way we enter later relationships, in how cautiously we ask for what we need, and in how quickly we interpret distance as proof that we are not enough. The event passes; the conclusion we drew about ourselves may remain.

When someone does not choose us, it is easy to turn that decision into an absolute judgment of our worth. Yet rejection also reflects the limits, desires, fears,…