When someone asks how was your college experience this is the image that comes to mind when thinking about my first two years of college:

I never expected to fail so hard my first two years of college. I was working 40-hour weeks while trying to balance a social and academic life. My grades plummetted. I honestly came close to dropping out of college. At my rock bottom that year, I had no idea how important that failure would be in the future.

Failure hurts. Failure is tough. Nobody wants to fail, but we need to fail. We need to make mistakes and learn from them. Failure shows us the chinks in our armor. The imperfections that we do not want to recognize. When these imperfections come to light, we have a moment of reckoning. We have to acknowledge that we all make mistakes. After you acknowledge your imperfections, you can begin to evolve as a person.

Failure showed me that I still had a journey to take. That I needed to learn and adapt. I am now blessed to have taken that journey. I have learned that I am strong and independent, that I can work through adversities.

I recently saw a quote from Leslie Odom Jr.'s new book Failing Up that reminded me of the importance of failure. Odom Jr. says "everything changed in an instant the first time I really gave myself the room and permission to fail spectacularly."

When I read that quote, it forced me to step back and ask myself how often I give myself the room to fail. Do I step out of my own comfortable world and take chances? Do you?

There is a power in allowing yourself the opportunity to fail. If you don't fail, are you actually going to learn? Are you going to expand your knowledge and world? Failure is powerful. Failure does not make you less of a human. It makes you a powerful human who learns and grows. So get out there. Fail. Fail again. I promise you will not regret it.