Rejections--a Bad Thing?

So I've been querying this YA fantasy novel that I think is FANTASTIC and I've had others share the feeling...but apparently not agents. I've had six show interest and request more material, and so far all but two of them has turned it down.

Sadness! I had a little pity party, introduced my forehead to the desk and had myself a good cry. I felt all was lost, what's the point, why do I bother etc? All I could see was that she read my 100 pages several times, even showed it to other in-house agents and they didn't think it was enough either, she loved the concept, but my execution wasn't clicking for her. Then after showing the rejection to my incredibly supportive husband, he helped me see it differently. The agent actually had several positive things to say.

"You know this is a business based on personal taste, please keep on querying, you've definitely got something here and I'm hopeful someone else will know the right way to exploit what you've got!"

Contradicting terms? I thought so. But I decided to focus on the more positive aspects of her rejection. And today I had another agent who'd requested the full thing reject it saying, "There is a lot I liked about this story, and the writing shows potential. But in the end, the elements of the story were too familiar for an overcrowded market." In other words, the writing's good, come up with a more original idea. Which kinda sucks because I really think my idea is original!

That's okay. Rejection is never easy, and I'm getting more and more used to it. I don't even sweat the plain ones from agents who aren't interested at all. However, these more major ones from agents who request stuff are a little harder to swallow.

What am I going to do about it? Keep chugging, baby! At the Big Sur Writer's Workshop in California last March I sat next to a freelance editor named Eric Elfman, and he said, "If you keep writing, you will get published." The problem with most people is they give up too soon. Not me. Nu-uh, no giving up here. Not even if I have to self-publish it! Somewhere out there (I'm hearing Fievel singing in my head) is an agent who will not think my story is unengaging and unoriginal. There is an agent who will read my Tears book and think, how fabulous! It will happen!