The first week of classes: A week full of excitement, nerves and to be quite honest, a lot of stress.

As I walked into a few of my classes, I soon found myself overwhelmed at what was in store for me in the months ahead.

I thought to myself about one class in particular, “It’s like they are designing this class for me to fail.” Leaving discouraged, I had to give myself a small pep talk that went something like this: “You are smart enough for these classes. You are capable. You will be great at your future career.”

My entire life, I’ve been the girl afraid of failure. Being “bad” at something makes me anxious, and extremely uncomfortable. But, I can recall countless times my elementary teachers growing up telling the class: “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.”

But now, I’m not just failing at learning to tie my shoes or how to french braid my friend’s hair. I’m learning how to be an educator. I am learning a second language. I am learning to be an “adult.” Going into my senior year of college, this scared me more than anything. Until one day, one of my best friends sent me the following quote:

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
― Paulo Coelho

Sitting down and really letting this soak in, I’ve realized that failing now will help me later in life. Now, I don’t mean flunking out of college. By this, I simply mean I need to learn to become uncomfortable in the work that I am doing this year, so I can be comfortable with it once it is all over. Being scared to accidentally mess up a sentence in my Spanish class, or being afraid to type in a wrong answer for my math class will never help me learn how to correctly do it.

Would I rather be a little uncomfortable and out of my “zone” for a few months, or feel unprepared when the time came in my future career? Most definitely the first option.

It may sound a bit odd to say, but in the upcoming months, I hope I mess some things up and make a few mistakes here and there.

I hope I find myself working to better myself, instead of totally avoiding things I may not be the best at.

I hope I am brave, and go into things I am reluctant about with an open mind.

I hope I fail this year. Because If you never fail, you will never truly know what the true feeling of success feels like.