On Failure: When Life’s Plans Don’t Meet Our Deadlines
Editor’s note: This piece is part of our “Failure Series,” where we examine the messy and difficult work of creating equitable systems. The ‘F’ word has a bad rep in global health, but the truth is we all fail. We encouraged Global Health Corps’ community members to share their own stories of failure to help inspire a culture where setbacks aren’t end points, but merely milestones on the way to progress. Enjoy!
If you’d like to join a community of changemakers who embrace failure as part of the process of changing the world, apply to be a Global Health Corps fellow today at ghcorps.org/apply.
In August 2013, I set out to start my Master’s program at Brandeis University in the USA. Somehow I had already set it in my mind that when May 2015 came, I would be done with this degree and probably transitioning to work in this International organization. I visualized this happening without even considering that my trajectory through the program might not be as simple as a, b, c. I didn’t consider how difficult it would be to transition to a different culture and integrate into a new country with totally different systems from my home country. I was born, raised, and did all my schooling in Uganda — stepping into the unknown meant facing a lot of challenges.
I struggled with a number of things, but the hardest hit came when I got some major setbacks with my funding and I could not continue to complete my first year. This was war — emotionally, socially, and even physically. In the week after I got the news, I cried almost nonstop and could not eat or sleep. This felt like a failure that I couldn’t recover from, as it meant leaving school with only one semester completed.
One of the critical steps to dealing with and learning from my failure was to realize that it was not the end of my life and that even without completing my Master’s program, I could still do great. I sobered up and began to consider other options. I reached out to family, friends, and the community we created at school for support. I requested a formal leave from school and applied for and joined the amazing Global Health Corps fellowship program.
On completing the fellowship, I began the process of returning to school. I had to reapply for more funding and show how I had used my leave from school to do good. My experience with failure taught me how to speak up and negotiate, and not only was I accepted back into the program, but my scholarship amount actually increased following my gap year.
Today, I am completing my second year of graduate school and working to prepare young people for employment through an online education program in Nairobi, Kenya. I cannot thank my failure enough for how resilient it made me. I now consider myself a fighter who does not quit after getting knocked down. What I went through has made it possible for me to mentor young people about how to use rejection and failure as opportunities to spur personal and professional growth. I feel better equipped to have more open discussions and meet life’s challenges head on, and for that I will always be grateful.
