I can confidently say that failure is a college student’s most real and present fear. It seems that instead of achieving success, we merely avoid failure. Everything we fear has to do with not being good enough. Despite its unwavering and usually negative existence, I have learned to embrace failure. When we succeed at everything, we tend to lack appreciation for the difficult trials. However, these trials that make us who we are and we are able to learn from these challenging events.

I don’t think anyone can relate to this next statement as well as a college student can -- "College can feel more like a struggle to stay afloat than an outlet to be successful." College students face failure from all directions. Whether it's not passing a class, not being able to afford living expenses, or not landing a crucial internship, the possibility of “not making it” is in every direction. It seems like the constant bombardment of defeat is one that makes itself welcome in our lives, rather than simply being a passing trial. The harsh reality is that we will all fail at one point (or probably more) in our college life.

The ironic part is the classes I’ve learned the most from, both in content and responsibility, are the ones that I either failed or was close to failing. I was forced to crack down and make a conscious effort to put my mind to work. I ended up failing some of those tests/classes and I ended passing some, but that’s not what I remember from them. Instead, I chose to remember that a challenge that seems too daunting simply means I need to focus harder. And even in the cases where I did fail, none of the consequences were enough to stop me from my end goal. I’ve had obstacles in the road, but that’s all they are: obstacles. None of these defeats, not matter how massive they seemed at the time, kept me from achieving my goal. The key is to accept that you won’t always be great at everything you do and those truly satisfying experiences and achievements do come with a sufficient amount of risk. Figure out what you are passionate and go after that instead of trying to be sufficient at everything. Nobody becomes successful by playing it safe and only taking low-risk opportunities.

I’ve learned to embrace failure and even laugh about it. There’s no getting around that it can be devastating. But if we find the positivity in our trials, we will gain insight as opposed to just being frustrated. Life is relatively short. I’d hate to spend my time on activities that don’t stretch my boundaries and allow me to grow.