the first no thanks we received and how it hurt...

we'd been chatting to this gorgeous couple in cape town for like 3 weeks. lots of voice notes, video call, we'd planned a meet for the saturday. on the friday she messaged saying they'd talked it through and werent feeling it after all, really kind and respectful message but it absolutely floored me. i cried in the bath, i felt rejected and ugly and like the whole lifestyle was a mistake. its been 18 months now and i can see it for what it was (a normal part of it) but in the moment it was BRUTAL. how did you handle your first rejection and what did you tell yourself to move past it...