My first day of class in Honors Organic Chemistry was intimidating. We started the material almost immediately, and what was supposed to be "review" was foreign to me. I'm going to be honest here: I panicked.

When I got back to my apartment, I spent hours looking over the textbook and doing practice problems, but I was still confused. I even got extra help from the TA in class.

When I sat down to take the review quiz, though, I felt so stupid. I turned in my quiz knowing that I didn't do as well as I thought I could. As soon as the grades were posted, I checked them. My heart sank. I got a 68.

I started putting myself down immediately. All of the concepts in the review quiz were supposed to be REVIEW.

Usually, I don't mind one bad grade, but since this was a review quiz, I doubted my ability to succeed. I wanted to drop the course.

I kept talking to my friends and family. They reassured me that it was just one quiz, and the fact that it was a review quiz didn't matter. What mattered was how I dealt with this blow to my self-confidence.

Failing a quiz (especially a review quiz) sucks, but you have to remember that failing at something doesn't mean you are a failure. Don't tell yourself that.

In a world defined by success and growth, it's easy to feel like your accomplishments (or failures) are connected to your identity. At the end of the day, your identity is not defined by something as silly as a grade on a quiz.

You aren't a failure. You are intelligent, resilient, kind, and strong. Repeat it until you believe it.

I'm going to make sure I understand the concepts I didn't understand on the review quiz. Dealing with failure is hard. It can hurt your self-confidence for a while. Still, don't let it destroy you. Move on gracefully. Prevent it from happening again.

Failure makes us human. Failure helps us improve.

Embrace it.