The Face that Launched a Thousand Rejections

The phrase "the face that launched a thousand ships" is from Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe in reference to one of the most beautiful women in history apparently, Helen of Troy who was married to King Menelaus of Greece but then was stolen away by Paris of Troy, an abduction that started the Trojan War with Agamemnon, Achilles, Ajax, Hector, Priam, all those guys who showed up in "The Iliad" the poem by Homer but probably more accessible to most audiences, through the 2006 movie starring Brad Pitt, Bryan Cox, Rose Byrne, Eric Bana, etc. The implication that she was so beautiful that a thousand ships were sent after her to get her back, but probably just like anything in human history the real story is more about using that as a pretext for invasion of neighboring lands and expanding one's territory, something all historic civilations aspired to do but with varying success. I, on the other hand, have the face that launched a thousand rejections, at least for game show and reality shows in my life. Blame it on me, blame it on my bloodline, blame it America's obsession for people who look like them, blame it on Chinese people not watching TV, blame it on my inability to dress well, blame it on Asian men not being represented well in American media, for whatever reason my face is like an insta-reject for casting companies who cast reality TV shows. Honestly, any rational person would take the tradeoff of getting selected for jobs and having great health luck and having 2 parents, etc., but for whatever reason I grew up in a society where I put a priority on getting on TV, maybe because it would show "I made it" even though all those people who I wanted to prove myself to have probably long forgotten about me, so there's really no motivation other than some lingering desire to have this kind of empty achievement. Well, that and the money; every reality TV show or game show seems to have at last some money prize, whether it's Jeopardy's roughly $20,000 per episode to Mr. Beast's $5 million (!) grand prize in a luck contest which actually went up to $10 million by the finale (spoiler art). So yea, I guess it's not just my pride that wants to get on a show, it's also money, which probably "ups the stakes" to create maximum drama for TV shows, as if that's the only thing anybody would ever want. Unfortunately, rejections in the entertainment industry are commonplace, much more so than most other industries, which usually give some sort of acknowledgment that they've passed and selected another candidate. The entertainment industry only gets back to you if they want to move on with you, otherwise it's just "ghosting," "we'll call you don't call us," and it makes sense, there are just too many people that want what they're looking for, and they're not looking to build a relationship with you in case their first candidate drops out and they have to go with someone else; there are always plenty of other people who would say yes so they don't need to treat you nicely if they don't want you. That's kind of the price of fame: if you want to try for fame, you have to be ready for plenty of rejection first, unless you look like the modern day equivalent of Helen of Troy and are that good looking- that's the golden ticket for the entertainment industry, either you have some tangible skill that you can show off quickly, or else the best talent of all: being attractive and good-looking. That trumps all. I value pockets in our society that don't value beauty and skin-deep assessments. In the most recent Time magazine, there were 2 obituaries of famous people, Michelle Trachtenberg who was a key supporting character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who tragically died a couple months ago, and Gene Hackman, famous actor and multiple Oscar Award winner (his character Popeye in The French Connection inspired the name for Popeye's Chicken), with their photogenic photos taking up half the page because you know, they were actors and good looking. Way down in a small 5-line blurb under the Gene Hackman section, though was Died- Australian plasma donor Jamers Harrison, whose antibodies were used in medication that helped protect more than 2 million babies, who died on Feb. 17. I'd heard about Harrison through Red Cross newsletters and he's a pretty big hero in Australian and the donor community, but appararently not important enough to get a picture in Time magazine and pique readers' interest. It's one thing to have a rare type of antibody that can save 2 million babies (can't really help that, you're just born with it), but it's another to go donate every couple weeks for decades to devote your life to that. Believe me, it takes a lot to get out of the house (MJ doesn't really like me donating, and neither do my parents), go to the donor center, get paid no money, have people stick 2 needles in you, sit there for a few hours not able to move your arms (and no checking your phone!). Not saying I'm a hero or at James Harrison's level, but we should all be judged by how well we live with the hands we were dealt- some people were just given athletic bodies, or attractive faces, or genius minds, normal people just can't compete with them and you shouldn't give up just because you can't be like those people. Be proud of what you can accomplish with what you are able to do. Just don't expect that time of philsophy getting into the entertainment industry.