Every school has them. The jocks and the cheerleaders, the presidents and the debaters, the geeks and the achievers, and the town queens and the spirit crusaders. Everyone is typically labeled as one or another, but if any of you are anything like me, you belonged to all of the above. I came from a tiny town where everyone knew everything and the sky was the limit with activities to be involved in. I was the over-involved senior.
As my high school’s Student Council president, FFA president, homecoming queen, prom queen, drama club actor, varsity basketball player, and cheer captain of three years, I thought getting involved in college would be a breeze. I was under the impression all of my leadership roles I had grown accustomed to would follow me to Oklahoma State University, and I dreamed big goals of being just as active on campus as I was then. That wasn’t the case at all.
Reality hit as application after application went without an interview callback and the “we will get back to you” never came through. My first semester I applied for multiple leadership positions in a variety of clubs and out of 15 applications, only one resulted in a position with OSU’s President’s Leadership Council. At the time I was more concerned with the numbers of boards that turned me away rather than the one I did accomplish. I began doubting my leadership abilities as an individual and questioning my decision of moving away from home where my graduating class consisted of 21 students to a university of 35,000 students. It tore me apart. And honestly, that’s okay. It’s okay because that is when I began finding myself. That is when I came back stronger than ever.
I let the disappointment and doubts of my first semester empower me to come back in full force and work harder at achieving my goals. I began learning from failed attempts and finding out what went wrong where and choosing to fix it so I became better next time. Interviews became more like practice to me and my confidence grew in my capabilities of each position. My motto became, “there is always a reason for everything. Something better is to come." Over time, I realized it was my “failures” that resulted in my success.
Today, I am an active member of my sorority where I held two positions within my chapter, I have just spent an entire summer working in the most amazing company as an intern, I have worked for the same retail company for the past year and a half where I was promoted after only 2 months, and I have an abundance of sources coming to me with offers of wanting to write my letter of recommendations for jobs after graduation. I may have never held as many positions as I once thought I would in my college years but I have become so successful anyway by learning from those failures and learning the importance of just being active and a leader in your own way. You don’t need the title of that XYZ position. You just need to be a leader.
So, to those once over-involved seniors, it is okay to fail. It is okay you didn’t get that position you wanted or you didn’t make the cheer team or your first test grade was a B or a C. It is okay to cry and it is even okay to be upset with yourself and wonder why you keep trying. Just remember to pull yourself up, stand tall, and continue forward with more determination when your done. Learn from those mistakes. College is not high school – its not meant to be. College is where you find out who you really are and where your passions and goal lie. Getting involved is what is important, not holding every position of every club available. Pick one or two, maybe even three, you are truly passionate about and begin discovering yourself. Those mistakes are not the end of your career. They are just the beginning.
