Me as a student “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn”. A quote by Benjamin Franklin that has always been important to me, and in following it I have grown to be more and more confident in my learning. This led to a growth in my confidence, and inevitably allowed me to learn in a way that suited me. To believe in myself has and will always be my first priority. Throughout the last 18 years of my life, I have come to have many regrets, and have faced a range of difficulties. This constant notion of failure knocking at my door prompted my response of accepting it, only considering my failure as a way to learn from the experiences. I believe that how I choose to overcome these obstacles determines whether I will become successful or not. As many people say, we learn from our experiences and our mistakes, but there are very few people who actually choose to act upon it. I consider myself among those who accept their mistakes and as having the ability to resolve them. Being a free thinker, I always imagined myself as a number of different occupations as a child. When I was 8 I wanted to be a hair dresser, a stay at home mum, a social worker, a journalist and a flight attendant altogether. The older I got the more I began to realise that life goes by quickly and there is no way I could possibly accomplish everything I dreamt of as a child; and I should focus on one thing that I am passionate about and put my whole heart into it. So I began
Between the ages of 6 and 12 I wanted to purse a variety of careers. I can always remember wanting to be a dancer and a singer. I believed both occupations were a strong possibility for me because I knew I had a good voice and even better dance skills. My dance teachers, as well as numerous family members, always complimented my choreography, my passion, and my skill for dance. Also, I always sang at family functions and events and I enjoyed all the compliments I received. At some point I took a liking to teaching because I loved school so much. I often played “school” by myself, as I enjoyed creating assignments.
I remember as a young girl in elementary school and also in middle school I had three career choices that I narrowed down to choose from. I was either going to become
Growing up the main question a child is asked is, “What do you want to be when you grow up? “ , and most kids respond saying a doctor, lawyer, or a cop. In reality not everyone sticks to their first idea, and it’s slim that they actual start working in the chosen career. In my case, I have always wanted to work as a social worker or a therapist, but I realized it wasn’t in my budget. Therefore, I have decided; as well as, grew interest in being a dental assistant for a pediatric office.
The inspirational author of The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch, once said, “Experience is what we get when we don’t get what we want.” Not only can one receive experience from not receiving what one wants, but, one can obtain experience from his/her mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, it is a part of learning; one simply needs to allow oneself to pick up from that point on. The motto, “In order to go up, you must go down,” should be followed. This motto should be followed because it improves optimism, it is relevant to many people’s life, and it can be followed by anyone.
Someone once told me “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.” I guess it wasn’t important to me at the time and therefore I chose to ignore it, little I knew the wisdom these words carried.
I really enjoyed the “Think and Grow Rich-A Black Choice” video. The speaker Dennis Gimbro was very engaging, and interesting. The essential message I acquired from the video was “Failure is not failure until you accept it as such.” What I take from this is, just because someone has “failed” at a single thing, does not mean they have failed overall, in fact, it does not even have to mean they have failed. The “failure” can be a lesson; it is common to hear the phrase “people learn from their mistakes,” and this is kind of what I relate to this, people learn from their failures. If ones makes it so, it possible to take a mistake, or a failure, and to analyze what went wrong, how the situation can be improved, and how one can better themselves. That is what I think Gimbro is saying; if you fail, do not give up, keep trying and pushing as hard as you can, and turn that failure into a success. However, you accept that you have failed, and give up, quit trying,
Failures are important, but learning from them is
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”, Winston Churchill once said. As a high school student I would only things that I had to and cross my fingers that I didn’t screw up. But in the long run, I realized it would pay off the keep my head up high and stay persistent.
It wasn’t until my first year of Community College in which I actually had given a lot of thought of what career I was going to pursue. I mean I always knew that I wanted to work in the medical realm, but I didn’t know exactly what. So when I was in my career development class in highschool we took a personality text in which we were asked a lot of questions and depending on your answers it connected you to possible careers that could interest you. The jobs that fit my personality were nursing, pediatrician, counselor, sales representative, Physical Therapist, and Occupational Therapy, etc. This is where my interest for Occupational Therapy grew.
With vivid images of failure in my mind, I pushed myself harder than ever before with one goal in mind: to be the best that I could be. Driven not by a fear of failure, but of not being able to make the most out of my life, I was able to achieve both first rate grades and personal pride in my work. Without my resolution to succeed, I would never have stepped outside my comfort zone and gained both the knowledge and experience that accompanies.
I failed to reach the top of the rock climbing wall on the playground, and as a result, I have strived even harder to reach the peak of success in everything I do. Instead of becoming discouraged and disappointed in myself, I found a way to improve myself for my next challenge. Learning from my mistakes has molded me into an improved person while giving me the motivation to keep pushing forward. Failure has taught me the importance of learning from your errors and trying again, no matter how difficult it may be. Without lessons like these, I would not be the motivated, independent person that I am today. I will continue to fail and try again until I achieve my goal of reaching the
One major part of being unable to recover from failure is the inability to accept the fact that one has failed. Recognizing failure is important because without the recognition, there is no improving on a failed experience. In not recognizing failure as a problem, one is given a false view of themselves where they never fail, however in “The essential Guide for Recovering from Failure”, Guy Winch, Ph.D, shows the reader the problem with not recognizing or understanding the concept of failure.
Over the years I have thought of many different careers and majors that I believed I should do. Most of the time they were based on what I saw other people, who I looked up to doing. My cousin Courtney was a lifeguard, so I wanted to be a lifeguard, my mom was a nurse, so I wanted to work in the medical field. Then I would be watching sporting events with my dad, and I wanted to be a sports journalist/reporter. It wasn’t until high school that I really started to look at what I liked to do and what I was good at.
Everyone, at some point in their life, has made a mistake. Sometimes we get lucky and only falter a little, making it through the problem relatively intact. Other times, we mess up a lot and have to fix what was damaged over a long period of time. However, the same is true for most, if not all cases—those who make the mistake learn from it. Often times, our failures teach us valuable lessons that we only gained because of the experience we gathered after messing up. I have personally achieved a wealth of knowledge and experience just from all of my own little mishaps, and a few major ones.
Throughout my life I have been privileged with many lessons, some taught by my own mistakes, other’s guidance, or through my own interests and determination. I approach each mistake as simply a way to learn more, so I don’t have to repeat that ever again. One format that I have learned from is my experience in getting a first job. The path I took in achieving my goals for that job and being finally hired is something I never want to forget, because it teaches me a very, very simple lesson that many still don’t understand: work hard if you want to succeed.