Celebrating Failure
My Failure this Semester:
1. One area where I failed repeatedly this semester was in my extreme weather class, where we had to write explanation posts concerning a topic that was discussed in the weekly lectures. The way that the professor described the assignments made me think that these would be easy points to achieve if I just covered the concept in basic terms, but after receiving my first lackluster grade, I realized I needed to step up my game with these posts. For my second explanation post, I made sure that I understood the topic to the best of my ability, rereading lecture slides and looking up information about the topic from outside sources like Khan Academy and Minute Earth. I tried my hardest to craft a valid response to the prompt, but even after all of my hard work I still received a similar grade to my first post. I definitely felt disheartened by this grade, and I thought that it simply was impossible to receive the grade I desired from for these assignments, and that I would have to rely solely on test scores and online quizzes to get a good grade. But I didn't give up, and for my third explanation post I tried even harder than my first two, adding in all the information I thought was relevant to the topic even if it wasn't directly related to the desired explanation. After this assignment, I finally received full marks and felt that my hard work had paid off.
2. What I learned from these failures was that if I persevere in an endeavor I generally can find a solution to a persisting problem I'm facing, though it might take multiple tries to do so. What these failures in particular showed me was that in the past I have generally failed once at a topic, tried harder the next time, and received a better grade, but that didn't happen this time since my harder work the second time led to the same grade outcome. This event really frustrated me, because I generally see myself as a competent individual and that I can do anything I set my mind to, but in this circumstance this mindset didn't achieve what I wanted. I quickly wanted to blame my professor for making assignments with unclear point structures, but I realized that maybe I just needed to try again, and sure enough my second attempt yielded the results I wanted. I think I ended up learning the lesson that I am still fallible even when working my hardest, and that accepting failure and moving on is the best thing I can do in scenarios like this.
3. Failure is a difficult thing to overcome, the frustration of feeling like all of your hard work is going unnoticed is incredibly annoying, as many of us have gotten to this school by utilizing a lot of hard work on top of some existing academic talent. However, I think handling failure is an important life skill, and the ability to pick up the pieces and try again in the face of challenging odds will be a significant benefit for someone in future workplaces and in life. This class specifically has altered my position on failure in that my first idea I wanted to explore was not really a viable option, so I had to go back to the drawing board even after investing time into the concept. This taught me that failure is not necessarily an inhibitor to success, but instead a necessary stepping stone on the path to it. Considering all of this, I am much more likely to take a risk now and see where it leads me than I was before this course, as now I understand that a failure is not as big a deal as I once thought.
1. One area where I failed repeatedly this semester was in my extreme weather class, where we had to write explanation posts concerning a topic that was discussed in the weekly lectures. The way that the professor described the assignments made me think that these would be easy points to achieve if I just covered the concept in basic terms, but after receiving my first lackluster grade, I realized I needed to step up my game with these posts. For my second explanation post, I made sure that I understood the topic to the best of my ability, rereading lecture slides and looking up information about the topic from outside sources like Khan Academy and Minute Earth. I tried my hardest to craft a valid response to the prompt, but even after all of my hard work I still received a similar grade to my first post. I definitely felt disheartened by this grade, and I thought that it simply was impossible to receive the grade I desired from for these assignments, and that I would have to rely solely on test scores and online quizzes to get a good grade. But I didn't give up, and for my third explanation post I tried even harder than my first two, adding in all the information I thought was relevant to the topic even if it wasn't directly related to the desired explanation. After this assignment, I finally received full marks and felt that my hard work had paid off.
2. What I learned from these failures was that if I persevere in an endeavor I generally can find a solution to a persisting problem I'm facing, though it might take multiple tries to do so. What these failures in particular showed me was that in the past I have generally failed once at a topic, tried harder the next time, and received a better grade, but that didn't happen this time since my harder work the second time led to the same grade outcome. This event really frustrated me, because I generally see myself as a competent individual and that I can do anything I set my mind to, but in this circumstance this mindset didn't achieve what I wanted. I quickly wanted to blame my professor for making assignments with unclear point structures, but I realized that maybe I just needed to try again, and sure enough my second attempt yielded the results I wanted. I think I ended up learning the lesson that I am still fallible even when working my hardest, and that accepting failure and moving on is the best thing I can do in scenarios like this.
3. Failure is a difficult thing to overcome, the frustration of feeling like all of your hard work is going unnoticed is incredibly annoying, as many of us have gotten to this school by utilizing a lot of hard work on top of some existing academic talent. However, I think handling failure is an important life skill, and the ability to pick up the pieces and try again in the face of challenging odds will be a significant benefit for someone in future workplaces and in life. This class specifically has altered my position on failure in that my first idea I wanted to explore was not really a viable option, so I had to go back to the drawing board even after investing time into the concept. This taught me that failure is not necessarily an inhibitor to success, but instead a necessary stepping stone on the path to it. Considering all of this, I am much more likely to take a risk now and see where it leads me than I was before this course, as now I understand that a failure is not as big a deal as I once thought.
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