Getting Published Is Like Teaching 8th Grade English

Dear Literary Loves,
Okay, first, I have not written on this blog in over a week because I have been too blessedly perturbed with publishing and literary agents. I had a literary agent that I had submitted my full manuscript to and on all fronts it appeared to be a match.  And then she sent me a pass on the book saying it was a difficult decision for she and her literary agent partner.  They thought the life lessons I included in the book were to simplistic or nothing they hadn't heard before and they were perplexed as to how to make my manuscript stand out from other books like it.  I knew I wasn't taking the news well when I could hear my teeth grinding and my nostrils were flaring.  It took me three days to calm down enough to send a reply.  I have been attempting to land an agent for this book, which is quite personal, for two years.  It is quite difficult to know as a writer that your book is needed because you probably have read more memoir than the literary agents considering it.  I have well over 100 memoirs on my shelf.  No, I didn't attend Harvard, Northwestern, or Columbia.  No, I didn't grow up in the northeast and go to a boarding school for girls.  My parents didn't live in a country club.  I'm from a small town.  No one where I grew up was really expected to do anything special.  None of us were rich.  So when I decided to go to college I majored in teaching middle school.  And then I decided I would teach English and Social Studies.  I never wanted to teach in a private school because that is such a foreign concept to me.  I made it a priority to teach in the public school system and then was assigned to teach in an inner city school.  Dangerous would be an understatement.  I did teach one year in a private school, but honestly, I loved the students; it was most of the parents who drove me crazy. 
So trying to get my first book published has reminded me a lot of what it is like to successfully teach sixth, seventh, and eighth graders:  you've got to have loads of patience, you have a backbone of steel, and occasionally, you just have to imagine round-housing a wall.  Then my family came to visit for my birthday this week and well, the memoir is about them and it just frustrates the hell out of me that no one among the literati appears to be able to recognize a diamond in the slush pile even if it got up and hit them on the side of the head.  And on top of it all, I got called for jury duty on my birthday!  I did buy three new memoirs this week and I will be reading and reviewing them on this blog, but I don't think they are anywhere near the quality of my memoir.  I don't write for Joe and Jane Smith who were born with silver spoons in their mouths darling.  I write for the casual, normal, everyday, get with the program, and put up or shut up members of society.  Cause you know what? They are the heart and soul of this country.