The Gut Punch or the Loser Badge?

I'm posting this not as angry loser of a writing contest (yes, the loser part is right, but I'm not angry!), I am simply here to add this badge to my "sash." (Yes, I was a girl scout all those years ago.)

My very first form rejection from this year's I (Heart) Presents writing competition. There's a flurry of hurt feelings over there about the published/not published nature of a couple winners...but BIG DEAL says I. I lost. I move on.

The fantastic part was getting the following "you suck" message pasted into my official "you suck" notice from the company. (I kid, I kid. I don't suck, regardless of their calls for me to abandon my manuscript.)

So here it is, my very first impersonal rejection, straight from the Editorial Team at Harlequin Presents (Mills & Boon):

Thank you for submitting your first chapter to The Harlequin Presents Writing Competition 2009. The winners have now been notified and we’re sorry to say that your entry was not successful.

You may be wondering if you should revise your story? On the whole, we'd advise against this, but instead recommend that you start afresh with something completely new. Of course, we understand that you’ll want to know the reasons why your chapter didn’t make it into our shortlist, but unfortunately we can’t give individual feedback to every entrant. However you may want to take a look at the most common mistakes we saw in this year’s competition entries, which you can find here: http://www.iheartpresents.com/2009/11/contest-update-feedback-from-the-editors/

We appreciate your interest in Harlequin Mills & Boon and wish you all success with your future writing.

Yours sincerely,

Editorial Department

And I, dear e-mail-writing-under-assistant, appreciate you. And I thank you for my "badge" today.

Woo hoooo!