The only thing more competitive than getting into college is staying in college. Balancing academics, extracurricular activities and a social life while trying to sleep, even if it’s only for three hours, is a lot easier said than done.
After completing my first year at one of the top public universities in the country, I now know the true value of both hard work and failure. More importantly, though, I now know that not all failure is negative. In fact, much of the success that we experience stems from the failure that we overcome.
Though a class that you have taken may have sucked the life out of you and lowered your GPA, it taught you something. Even if that lesson was that you don't want to pursue a career in that subject or that you actually hate something you thought you'd love, it will benefit you. Your personal experience with the material is worth more than the numerical value of the class on your transcript.
College is about finding your passion and your niche in the world. The professional sphere does not expect you to be good at everything but instead seeks to find employees with specific skills. Throughout our younger years, we were encouraged to master everything, attempting to divide our time to learn everything instead of focusing our time on doing things we love and things that we can do to make a difference in the world.
Coming to Michigan, I had my life planned out. I was going to follow a pre-medical track, go to medical school and become a Psychiatrist. By the third week of the first semester, I realized that I want to work in the farthest thing from the medical field as I possibly could. This realization occurred around the same time that I feared I would not pass my Biology class (I did, don't worry).
My first instinct was to reject my feelings. Veering off the path that I had planned for so long would mean trying to figure out my future and trying to locate my passion. It was frightening. I was supposed to master something in just four short years and eight shorter semesters, and now wasn't the time to switch what I had believed I was a master in.
Eventually, though, I followed my gut. I soon found a program that I was incredibly interested in, and I began to take classes that further exposed me to that field. Sure enough, I became obsessed with it. Something that I never even knew about and probably would have never discovered had I not overcome my fear of failing in my future and more importantly in my class.
And I succeeded. I found what I'm meant to master. I found my passion. My GPA may have not liked me for it, but the rest of me did. The opportunities that I opened the door to in just one year outweigh any bit of failure I felt or experienced.
Success has no time limit. Either does failure. Like the old adage says, fall seven times, stand up eight. It takes falling to stand up taller. It takes failing to find passion, to succeed, and to be certain that what you're doing and where you're going is the right place.
