The first semester — and even the first month — of college is incredibly difficult. You have so much more freedom than you did in college, and you're constantly trying to juggle school, extracurriculars, stuff with friends, your sleep and eating schedule, and exercise. It's a handful, to say the least.
There are bound to be all-nighters pulled and classes slept through to catch up on the sleep that you missed to pull those all-nighters. There are bound to be nights that you just want to go and hang out with your friends. And there are nights that you are going to. There are going to be days when you forget to do your homework.
And worst of all, you're probably going to get back a test or an essay that you completely failed.
And that's OK.
In high school, no one taught students to fail. Teacher fed students the information and that was that. You got the grade that you wanted and if you didn't then you asked for extra credit. It was easy.
College is not.
College is hard. Teachers don't just give you the grade that you think you deserve. You have to work for it. And that's why failure is okay.
Sure, you may have a nervous breakdown when you see that F or D or whatever grade you got on your paper that you didn't want or didn't think that you deserved. You might call home and complain to your parents, complain to your roommate, or even complain to the teacher that gave you the grade. You might be angry, or sad, or frustrated, or all three.
But here's the secret that you won't know until you fail your first assignment: this is an opportunity to learn.
It may not seem like it now, but this assignment is going to change you as a person. It's going to make you a learner. You're going to talk to your teacher and find out what they want, and you're going to work harder to do it. You're not going to let yourself fail an assignment again.
Failing an assignment teaches you how to fail. It teaches you how to dust yourself off and get back up. It teaches you how to respond to real-life failure — because I can guarantee that we are all going to have that in our lives.
While you might not believe it now, this is going to teach you to be a better person. It might not feel like it when you get the test or essay back, but I promise, you'll be grateful for it later.