by Hayleigh Brokaw
Let’s be real, no one can be perfect. The idea of gliding through life with no hiccups or bumps is a blissful one but it is also completely unrealistic. I know many people like myself, who are Type A to the maximum and want to be able to control, predict, and fix any situation that may float our way. Luckily for me, I was taught a very important lesson early in my life that helps ease the stress of perfection from time to time.
Failure in grade school, high school, college, graduate programs, jobs, life, relationships, and everything in between can all have a different feel to them. They don’t all resonate in the same way. I have gone through them all and there is nothing wrong with that. My 7th grade year at my new grade school came with a new slew of classmates, teachers, expectations, and challenges. To this day, I could not be more thankful for the new and even scary environment that I was put in at that time. Coming from a much smaller school, I was presented with many new opportunities that I may not have had at my old school, such as STEM. STEM class was all the rage and for good reason- you get to explore SO much. My teacher for the two years I was there was an exceptional ray of sunshine and positivity but was also realistic when she needed to be. I vividly remember when I failed miserably (and I mean miserably) at any of our bridge building or coding projects, she would hit us with a line I still try to remember today: “Failing simply stands for first attempt in learning.”
College is even harder. The best part of it is to remember that you are certainly not alone at all. I can confidently say that the majority population of college students are doing their best to simply keep it together. Those accounting exams are hard. Those physics labs are long. Those clinical or observation hours can be excruciating. The job and internship search is extremely humbling no matter your experience or dedication- so guess what? You are going to fail. You are going to fail in regards to what college defines as failure and what you define as your own personal failure. The beauty of this lesson is what you choose to take from these failures.
“Failing simply stands for first attempt in learning.”
So, if a grade knocked you down, a relationship didn’t end how you wanted it to, a project didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to, or you just didn’t accomplish what you want, that is okay. Take the loss with a grain of salt, and turn it into a lesson, or a first attempt at learning. Maybe it isn’t even your first attempt; and that’s okay too. Resilience in light of failure is a sign of mental toughness and dedication that you can’t be born with, you learn it. Do what you can with the feedback you receive and turn it into a blueprint of success for what didn’t happen last time.
Let your dedication and growth define how you recover from a loss, not the failure that caused it.