It’s certainly a feeling no one wants to have. We strive to achieve in everything we do. But, when failure invades our lives, especially for someone like me with a Type A personality, we generally aren’t too pleased. But is there a way to possibly feel better after failure? Could some good actually come out of it?

I can remember just standing there, being fully aware of each and every feeling that flooded my body all at once. How could this happen to me? For someone who has been a high honor roll student her entire life, where did I go wrong? Learning that you’ve failed a class for the first time ever isn’t something that should be taken lightly. It is normal to be upset but, when there is nothing you can do to change the past, understand that you could change the future, and that’s exactly what I plan to do.

Admittedly, I’m different from many of my peers. As cliché as it that sounds, it’s true in some ways. For most of the kids I know, transitioning from middle school to high school was completely exasperating… in the beginning. For me, though, a month or two wasn’t enough time to overcome the stresses delivered to me after becoming a freshman. Now, I’m not typically one to get distracted or shy away from a challenge. However, when over the course of a single school year someone close to you leaves your life, a friend betrays you for the first time, higher expectations are thrown at you from your parents, and the experience of true loss overwhelms and affects your daily life, it may be just a little bit ignorant to say that what I was going through was painless. Moreover, to top it all off, school work became more arduous than ever before.
My initial reaction to the news of my failure was just all pathetic and self-pitying. All I thought to myself was “Wow you’re so stupid; how could you do this to yourself? You are such a disappointment to your family.” With all this sorrow and bumming around, I was able to intercept myself from the path of complete sadness and put an abrupt halt to it. I pulled myself together after realizing that this wasn’t like me. Before long, I was apprising myself that this would be a good thing and I would benefit from it.

Soon after, I decided that dwelling wasn’t going to help me. I settled on the solution that I was not only going to push through this minor barrier in my life but, I was going to redeem myself. And, knowing myself, this is what I needed to do considering the many struggles I have gone through this year. I was not about to let this trivial setback further restrict me from reaching my goals. So, to do this, it would be most advantageous to use this experience as a positive lesson that can be reflected on in the future.

As I sit in summer school English class typing this message, I’m still progressively accepting what happened. I am actually able to see myself growing, remembering my initial response to failure and seeing myself now. Many people, as human beings in a judgemental society, experience the feeling of inadequacy quite often throughout life. However, failure doesn’t have to be a bad thing! If you learn from the past, you can create a better future for yourself. In fact, this experience has not only taught me an important life lesson but, it made me come to the realization that life has many bumps in the road to success. So, I now feel as if succeeding and reaching my goals will be so much sweeter when done with a challenge.

While we’ve all heard it in the past, I’m beginning to truly understand the importance of the phrase, “Try to look for the bright side to everything.” Once people learn how to make the best out of everything, they’ll most likely be more happy in general. And even failure can open up new doors for self-growth and improvement in your quality of life. Learn from mistakes and move on with life. In my opinion, that is the secret to the contented, favorable life that everyone desires.