Sometimes we fail. We fall flat on our face, are disoriented and with dirt stained jeans we gaze at our peers who are upright admiring their ability to keep it all together.
College is so hard because it seems like I am experiencing failure at least once a day. I fail when I wake up late for class, I fail when I wash my clothes the wrong way and I fail when I receive in completes on assignments. Each time I fail it is harder than the next, but recently when talking to my mom I realized something profound.
She explained to me that what I am doing is extraordinary. I am going to college in a different country than her and somehow I have made it this far. I have made it through holidays alone, not going home on the weekend and them missing out on important first year events. Even though I am constantly doubting my ability to be in college, I do belong here. In three years when I walk across the stage, no one will know how much I struggled in certain classes or that my GPA was lower than it should have been. In three years I will have a diploma and a two hundred dollar frame to put it in and that is all that matters.
Without failure we would never learn. Failure is over sensationalized as negative and from a young age drilled into student’s brains. A’s are good and F’s are bad, basically the equivalent to the end of the world. However, without my failing grades I never would learn the material or how to improve for next time. If I never failed, I never would have the motivation to push myself to succeed and be better each and everyday.
So here is to the good with the bad. Here is to the failures and learning from them. Here is to not faltering in the face of adversity and thriving when placed in unfavorable situations. Here is to three more extremely hard weeks and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Here is to redemption.
These next three weeks are going to be filled with late nights, projects and lots of studying for my exams. This is a feeling that most college students are sharing and in times of stress, need to not get overwhelmed because something I think we could all here from time to time is "it will be ok."
One of the best worst parts about college is the ability for it to push students outside of their comfort zone. Every day I am learning something new and challenging myself which of course means I am going to fail and it is ok.
Sometimes we do fail but they make Tide To Go pens for a reason. So when we fall we need to get up, brush off the stains and continue going because no matter how many times we fail, we all belong here.