Being a college student, we hear the word "failure" multiple times. Whether we hear it from our professors, our parents, friends, and we even call ourselves failures. We let the simplest of things affect what our future may hold for us. Just because we don't succeed in a certain duty or task, does not mean that we are going to live the rest of our lives feeling like a failure. There are so many actors, actresses, singers, artists and professional atheltes who have been told to choose other professions because others didn't think that they woud excel in that career field. But if you let others dictate what your future would be, you're going to be living a lifetime full of feeling like you have to impress other people. Live a life that is full of the things that you love, even if it doesn't mean having a lot of money or doesn't necessarily live up to others expectations.
As a current college student, it is easy to be roped into thinking that we should just simply give up when the going gets tough because we constantly compare ourselves to our peers. I for one do this all the time in my classes even though I am not seeing my grades as a competition. If I hear that a person next to me did better than I did on a test or quiz, I automatically start talking down about myself saying that I am a failure and that maybe this wasn't the right major for me. Something that has always helped me to get out of that negative mindset is that I remind myself that I was accepted into my University and my major for a reason. If they did not think that I had the potential to succeed, then they would have not accepted me in the first place. There have been multiple times in my college career where I have thought about changing my major because I felt like a failure in my current one. A word of advice for any person that ever questions, if they are in the right major, do this: write a list of what made you want to pursue that major and how sticking with it will enhance your future.
To explain the picture I chose for this article, it features myself and two of my lovely co-workers, Amanda and Dani! I have been working at an animal hospital for the past five years with Amanda and we both started the same exact week. When Amanda first started at our clinic, she was primarily taking care of patients for routine appointments and reception work. Five years later, Amanda is now your go-to girl for help in our surgical suite, dental procedures, x-rays, drawing blood and so much more! Dani has been working with me for the past two years and is now a first-year veterinary medicine student at the University Of Illinois! Dani applied once before and wasn't admitted right off the bat for veterinary school. She found out what she needed to do to better her application for the next time around, followed through and got in! Now if that isn't a dream come true then I don't know what is!
To conclude this article, I want others to know that we are worth more than what we think we are capable of. Five years ago If you would have told me that I would be able to know how to draw blood, take x-rays or know how to do lab work I would have laughed and thought what a joke. Once you give yourself the confidence you need to believe in yourself, anything is possible. Even when I didn't believe in myself, Dani, Amanda and a bunch of my other co-workers did and look at where that got me!
