Every college student has heard the phrase "C's get degrees." It is a completely true statement because honestly you just have to get a C or above to stay in a good grade range with your school. Even though C's may get degrees, it's OK to fail. It's OK to fail because sometimes we need to. It's OK to hit rock bottom to figure out where you need to start your life and to discover who you are. It's OK to not be OK, but it's not OK to stay that way. Looking back at the past couple of sentences I just typed, I realized that I put "it's OK" a little too much.
Which leads me to my next point of how you're going to have repeats in college leaving you to think that everything is going to just explode in your mind and you are not going to know what to do. Some repeats are really good, like A's and B's, while some repeats are really bad, like the hangover you have each Friday morning. The thing is, that we have to learn from these repeats and we have to realize that it will be, well, OK.
When I came up with the topic for this article, I didn't want to focus on grades at all really. I wanted to focus more on the fact that at some point in your college career, you are going to be in a place where all you hear is "it's going to be OK," whether that be listening to someone tell you that daily whenever you have a mental breakdown (something we all know a little too well) or when you have to keep reminding yourself that life goes on. For me, my "it's OK" period lasted a whole semester when all I was being told was that it would be OK. That phrase irked my nerves more than any other phrase in the whole world. I was tired of hearing how "it was going to be OK" because I had hit rock bottom and knew that at that moment, nothing was OK.
I was stuck in this mindset that everything was awful and that my life was a huge mess that would never get better. The mindset I had was just a big fat lie. I realized that in college, I am going to fail. I am going to fail tests, quizzes, and homework assignments, some that I studied for and some that I was clueless about. I was going to fail as a leader at some points and disappoint some people along the way. The thing is, that's what college is for! If I never realized what it was like to fail, then I would never know what it's like to succeed. I would never know how good it felt to get good grades or to resist a certain temptation that I had been struggling with.
My point in this whole article is that it will be OK. Right now it may feel like your world is falling apart, and I don't know what you're struggling with or what is on your mind every second of every day. What I do know is that it honestly will be OK. College teaches you how to fail and how to succeed in every aspect of your life. We learn how to improve from mistakes on tests as well as improving from mistakes in relationships with our friends and parents. College is not four years to focus only on school; it is four years that will break you down just to build you back up stronger than ever. For me, I'm thankful for my failures. I'm thankful for falling flat on my face so that I may rise stronger than ever while overcoming every obstacle in my way.
So next time you get an F on a test or your boyfriend breaks up with you, just remember, it's going to be OK. Everything is a learning experience and it's OK to fail.
