Celebrating Failure

Of all the assignments we've had thus far, I never thought one about failure would be my favorite. It turns out, that once you learn to take failure by the reigns and ride it into success, it just becomes something new that you've learned.

This past year, though this past semester specifically, I've tried and failed many times. My whole life, I was known as the quitter in my family. That is an especially terrible title to own when you have six sisters and two step parents. But it was stuck like glue, and it seemed pretty fitting. I really did give up all the time. If things got too hard, I said it was just impossible for me. I blamed things on my height, my strength, my gender. It seemed that everything was at fault, except for me.

When I started dating my boyfriend last year, things got a little different. He was the polar opposite of me. To this day I think he's superhuman because he truly can do anything he tries. Slowly, but surely, he started pushing this mindset into my own head.

In the past year I've: successfully wake-surfed, gone skydiving, drove an enormous ATV across Canadian mountains, persuaded others to believe my own beliefs, and earned the 4.0 GPA I've long believed was impossible.

This was not without failure, however. (Ok, the skydiving clearly went well.)

These successes came with a lot of falls, a tipped-over ATV, a lot of backlash from others on their opinions, and strenuous hours of studying. But I did it, and I learned. I now see failure as opportunity. The worst thing that happens, truthfully, is nothing. If you fear an interview, the worst you hear is no. If you fear embarrassment from not making an awesome snowboarding jump, the worst thing is you fall and can't put on a show. So what?! Get up and do it again. Nothing is easy, but anything truly is possible.