How I Have Failed

Tdod34
Tdod34
Nov 4 · 2 min read

Failure is something that all of us face at one time or another in our lives. It cannot be escaped. Accepting the reality of our failures is the first stepping stone in learning from our mistakes and shortcomings so that we may continually improve ourselves. I believe we must not let our lives stagnate but rather always look for ways to better ourselves and those around us. So, how have I failed?

A memorable failure in my life happened when I was a senior in high school. I had gotten caught up in the middle of wrestling season and forgotten about an anatomy exam that was coming up. When the day of the exam came, I had yet to crack my notes to study for it. I became filled with anxiety about this test and my lack of preparation. To combat this, I decided I would take pictures of the more difficult diagrams from the textbook to use during the exam. While taking the exam, the teacher had seen me looking down into my lap and called me into his office after class. He asked me if I had been cheating during the exam and, knowing I was already caught, I told him the truth. I felt terrible when I saw the way my teacher looked at me. I had always been one of his best students and I could see it in his face that I had let him down. At that moment, I felt I had let myself down by compromising the values my parents instilled in me growing up. This was a learning experience for me in that I felt an overwhelming amount of shame in myself and my actions. I was not proud of who I chose to be that day. I think people can learn a lot from a feeling of aversion. I developed an aversion to the shame I felt and knowing that I let someone that I respected down. These were strong emotions that reset my course back to the straight and narrow. I went on to apologize to my teacher and finish the class with an A- after having to bust my tail to rebound my grade. By the end, I was proud of the work I had done and felt that I had mostly redeemed myself in my teacher’s eyes.

This is a story that I have told friends and a few of the kids on the wrestling team that were younger than me. I used it as an example of making mistakes and righting the wrongs that we have done. I wanted to emphasize that there is no shortcut through life and that my experience is one that could have been avoided.

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