In some places, it’s normal to see mental breakdowns, people staring blankly at inanimate objects for hours upon end, and trying to salvage what is remaining of their souls all in the same week.
Some of these situations take place in a psychiatric ward.
Some All of them also happen during finals week.
When you think of finals week, you probably imagine yourself sobbing loudly in the library at 2:30 in the morning, thinking about what you’ll look like with even bigger eye bags, and/or contemplating whether you should hook an IV drip filled with coffee to your arm for the rest of the week. These things are pretty scary. But the scariest vision of all? Failing an important final.
In all honesty, having visions like these are normal. Even though it really doesn’t seem like it, most people who experience the torture of finals week feel the same way. Everyone is petrified of failing in general. Failing a final, to be more specific, tends to terrify people more. It is devastating, to say the least. It’s something that is worthy to be scared of. But failing one should never cripple you.
No matter where you are, there is always a chance that you could be sitting in a room with people who have failed at something significant. You may think that’s a lie, especially when you see your peers at an equal or higher place than you. But you should also realize that people are good at concealing things. You most likely have secrets that you keep. What about others? It may not be obvious at first, but everyone has done something that doesn’t make them feel proud. Though some people have never failed a final before, those same people have most likely messed up on things that are just as important. In the end, we all have our fair share of failures.
Try to compare the times when you've learned the most valuable lessons. Would you say you learned more after a good experience without any problems or a bad one? Imagine if you lived a life without any stresses. Even though you would feel comfortable all the time, your intellectual ability would be sacrificed. You would not have any skills, nor would you understand the value of important things in life. Using your failure to recognize what happened can be useful. Depending on your circumstances, there are a lot of ways that you can learn from this. Failing a final can help you to realize that you didn’t work hard enough, and that your priorities may need to be re-ordered. Or it could mean that you tried your best, and you may have misunderstood something. All these are disguised as small, but powerful seeds of growth. A simple realization is still a lesson. Use these bad moments to advance yourself. There is value in the failure you have made, even if it doesn't seem like it.
Failure is inevitable. It’s also a necessity. It is one of the best ways to learn life’s important lessons. During her famous Harvard Commencement speech, J.K Rowling mentioned to the graduates, "It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default." Even though failing is probably one of the worst feelings ever, it shouldn’t be an excuse for you to mope around and pity yourself. Take it as a lesson. It might be better than some of the ones you learn in class.
*Disclaimer: Please make an effort to not fail your finals. It's on you if that happens.
