26A - Celebrating Failure

1.    This semester has been especially overwhelming for me because I started LSAT prep which takes a considerable amount of time out of my weeks. There was one week near the beginning of the semester when it was three of my best friends’ birthdays and I also had two exams the following Monday, on top of normal assignments for other classes and LSAT prep. I was very overwhelmed and I ended up forgetting to submit an assignment for this class as well as another class. I also did not do great on my exams the next week. I felt like a failure because I just kept beating myself up about it and wishing that I had managed my time better the previous week.

2.    This stressful moment in my life taught me that you really can’t do it all, and sometimes you just have to choose your priorities and stick to them. That week, I chose to celebrate with my friends rather than focus on school, and that made me realize that I cannot be upset or surprised at the outcomes (like forgetting to submit assignments or not doing as well as I’d hoped on a test) when I am the one who chose my course of action. At the end of the day, we are only human and we have limits on how much we can do.

3.    To put it simply, failure sucks. I think that I let it affect me too much emotionally, but it definitely redirects my behavior in a positive direction. Failure also highlights the limitations we face. I can get stressed out pretty easily, so whenever I fail at something I let the failure itself stress me out even more. However, I know that there is no use in stressing about failure. Instead, what is important is being able to acknowledge and accept it, and then improve so that it doesn’t happen again. I have always been a risk-averse person, so I don’t think that I am more likely to take a risk now than I would have been a few months ago.