As I make my way through college, I realize that it is impossible to avoid failure. With success comes failure. In order to reach your highest level of success, you must experience failure at some point. Failure is not a bad thing, although most people make it out to be. It is an essential part of life.
College made me realize that I am a complete and utter failure. Throughout my freshman year, I thought of myself as the definition of success. Sadly, I had a rude awakening when I realized I was actually failing. I went into freshmen year with so many expectations about becoming best friends with everyone, finding my long lost sister in my roommate, being the number one golfer and having a 4.0 GPA. All of those expectations came crashing down quickly when real life hit.
I thought my social life would be amazing. This might have been far-fetched, but I had high hopes for my college career. I quickly realized that it was not feasible to be friends with everyone. At a small college, like Milligan, people are quick to make assumptions about you. I tried to change myself to avoid that, but everything thing I tried, I failed at. In the end, I had failed at being friends with everyone, and in doing so, I found that I had failed myself in remaining true to myself.
I also thought that my roommate was going to be like a sister to me, but by second semester, that idea had fallen apart. I failed her because instead of trying to communicate about issues, I became bitter. I failed our friendship and lost a great roommate. Luckily, we have fixed our friendship. I am so grateful that I admitted failure because if I had kept up my selfish pride, I would've missed a great friend.
My first round of qualifying for golf was nothing like I expected. According to the standards that I set for myself, I failed, not just a little, but miserably. My college golf career turned out to be one misfortune after the next due to injury and class conflicts. I officially failed at my college golf career. In failing, I learned to become a better teammate and leader, which led me to success in more ways than shooting a low score.
I came into college thinking I would be able to get through classes like I did in high school. But after my first test in Humanities, I realized that was not plausible. I was forced to accept my failures in the classroom in order to work towards success. After doing so, I was able to pick up the pieces of my grades first and make a complete turn-around.
Without failure, there is no success. They go hand in hand. Failing doesn’t mean that you can’t do something; it just means that you must work hard. Not everything is going to come easy in life, and what fun would it be if it did? Life is meant to be lived, and if you are fully living, then you will fail at some point. It’s what you do with the failures that matter. Never fear failure. Instead, fear the potential regret of not trying.
