Rejected! Aw-right!

Got some mail yesterday. It was nothing important, just, y'know, a letter from Challenging Destiny.

Instead was a form letter, but in a very interesting format.

The beginning of the form said that my story was rejected, and that the Editor-in-Chief reads all the stories himself, but due to the number he receives, he cannot always read the entire thing. There was a list of options below that that said: "How Much I Read Of Your Story", and the square for "The Entire Story" was checked off. Despite the rejection, this was good news.
It meant he'd read the entire story of "My Brother's Own Words".

It also meant that he'd had a desire to read it all the way to end, which says something positive about my writing.

Below that was a list of reasons why he didn't choose my story. The option for "You have some interesting ideas, but it just didn't 'do it' for me" was checked off. An ambiguous reason, to be sure, but look at the options that were not checked off:

-I couldn't buy the premise. (Which meant he did buy my premise! About a boy who's mother is a parrot!)
-There wasn't enough "meat" on the story - too thin (Which meant my pacing was good, and that I spread it out well!)
-Too many syntax errors (credit my mother's editing skills for the reason that wasn't checked off)
-Story has nothing new to tell (I'm creative! He thinks I'm creative! Wheeee!)
There were others, but I cannot remember them all, except for the fact that their lack of being checked-off made me feel very proud of myself.
But best of all, at the very bottom of the page in loopy handwriting, was the message ", your story is well written. I encourage you to send me another." He wants me to send MORE! He didn't write "Maybe you should try gardening" or something of that sort. He likes the style I write in, to the point where he is willing to seriously consider more of my work. I can't wait to send something else.

And on top of that, I have yet to receive a positive/negative response from CICACA Magazine, so there's still hope coming in the mail.

And that, my dear readers, is why this was the best form rejection letter I've ever received.