Personal Narrative: Lessons Learned From Failure

Imagine being at the peak of your high school career, personally, academically, and athletically. For me, that was my sophomore year. I was selected to be on the homecoming court, I won a free class ring, and a free corsage and boutonniere for prom. I was on my way to a 4.0 grade point average. I was pulled up to Varsity basketball, I became the 100 meter hurdle regional champion, and I qualified for two events at the Division 4 State meet for track and field. In one split second, a clip of a hurdle, that was over. My first race of the day was the preliminary 100 meter hurdles. Once the race started, I was calm, focused, and determined. I was starting to make my way up to the front of the pack when I clipped my trail leg on the eighth hurdle.

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

Have you ever had something happen to you that made you think you couldn't do what you loved anymore? Well I have. I thought I would never be able to play the sport I loved, basketball, anymore. When I broke my arm in fourth grade in 2012 taught me to persevere,that you can do what you love no matter what, and no matter what bumps you hit in your life you can always come back better.

1. The 2nd case study made me reflect on my first head coaching job in football. I was hired by a school in south Texas with the help of a friend I coached with in Oklahoma. He had moved back to his hometown and started teaching and coaching at his high school. He contacted me about the opening and two months later I was hired. I hired him to be one of my assistants and even made sure that he was paid well as a thank you. I was very disappointed with the way he coached that year. I had already make arrangements to move him to a non-coaching position for the next season. I realize I never spoke with him about my expectations or made him aware of how I felt during the season. I identity with Dr. Skinner is some regards. I was caught up in the other aspects of teaching, coaching, and AD duties, I neglected to take care of that issue. I understand that it is OK to hire a trusted colleague or friend but the expectations of them should not be any different of anyone else.

My life began in privilege. From magnificent dollhouses, professional family Christmas pictures, and white picket fences, it all seemed so simple. Five-year-old me did not understand for the longest time what adversity was and how it would ever affect me. Twelve years later, I’ve come to realize that the adversity in my life has created diversity within me.

Everyone will encounter failure on their way to success. Without failure, we cannot grow and succeed – it teaches us how to improve ourselves. In history, for example, Abraham Lincoln went through many failures before becoming one of the United States’ greatest presidents. He was demoted quickly in the military and lost many elections in his career, but continued to work until he had risen to presidency (Wilson). Another example is J.K. Rowling, the famous author of the Harry Potter series. She went through many struggles in her life, each time adjusting and eventually working her way up to huge success and wealth (Gillet). In her book, Very Good Lives, Rowling describes how to embrace failure and improve yourself. There are many other well-known people in history with similar experiences. Walt Disney was fired for a lack of imagination, Sir Isaac Newton failed to run his farm, Thomas Edison was fired several times for being unproductive, and Albert Einstein had difficulty in school – all of these people and many more, at some point of their life, encountered failure and had to learn to accept it to achieve success. In my experience, this also applied in school. Although I always went for the highest grades, there were some times when I had a string of low grades. I learned to accept failure and learn from it, along with adjusting to change, to work my way back up to success in

When I think of the word “adversity,” three things come to mind, the words: difficulty, challenge, and perseverance. These come to mind because adversity is definitely difficult and it is surely a challenge, but, if you persevere, you can overcome all adversity.

The lessons that we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn from the experience?

In my life I had failed over thousands of times. From my first attempt to ride a bike, falling and getting an ugly scar on my right knee or my first time entering a Pokémon tournament, getting eliminated in the first round. Even through these failures, I never felt discouraged. I got on my cousin bike the next and I entered many other Pokémon tournaments afterwards. My failures motivate me to try even harder and try to succeed the next time around. Always giving it all I got and a little more. One of my greatest failures that I had in my life was not taking school serious, more specifically my freshmen and sophomore math and history classes’ in high school. This misstep had taught me two major things that are important to have in this world, a college education, asking for help. These lesions that I learn helped me mature and prosper as individual.

I walked down the concrete road singing one of my songs that I wrote recently about boys and trust. I didn't know anything about this topic, but I knew that I loved to perform and nothing was going to stop me from doing so. When I sung I often imagined myself as one of the girls from the hit movie Cheetah girls. Today I was Adrienne Bailon, a sassy chick from Cheetah girls who often brought the group together. Tomorrow I would possibly be Raven, the one who left the group. Every day I had a plan on who I was going to be and what I was going to sing. I would wake up every morning ready to start my daily routine of being one of the hit singers with a famous boyfriend who supported her. Around this time, I was 8 and I knew nothing about boys or fame, but I did know that I loved to perform. I know the main questions are: What happened? Did I ever achieve my goals? If so how did you achieve them and if not what stopped you? To partially

Lessons Learned from FailureIn the summer before my freshman year of high school, a couple of my friends and I wereout late at night inside our neighborhood. I could remember it was a cold night, for Florida atleast, and it was windy as well. We were out later than we were supposed to be, yet we were verytired and did not want to run all the way to the other side of the neighborhood. So, we asked arandom kid who drove by if he could drive us to our friend’s house and he said he could. Whilewe were on the way to the house, the kid began to drive very fast. Before we knew it, we hadcrashed into a wall that surrounded the neighborhood. The accident was a lesson given to me so Iwould be able to prevent myself and others from future failure.The hospital was very quiet and there was not much going on besides them attending toour needs.

History never changes, but the way we interpret it can. Born to a 19-year-old woman who had never lived outside of her small agricultural town and a 33-year-old Iranian soldier, I left Iran for the United States when I was five years old. My journey from a boy to a man is focused around five key decisions that would prove instrumental in writing my history.

Lessons can be learned from unexpected sources. One morning my sister Kenadee and I were playing with toys. We had buttered toast that morning; it was as tasty as ice cream. Kenadee was being really silly and put her buttered toast in our VCR player! I thought I could get the toast out of the VCR player with no problem.

As we all grow up we’re forced to make certain decisions that may be mistaken. It’s ok to make a mistake, but learning from it can be beneficial for us all. Looking back on my teenage years, I’ve made more mistakes, all due to the lack of attention, priorities and commitment. If I had only done what I was told to rather than what I wanted, I would’ve graduated High school the way I always desired to. However, I’m here to say I realized it was the biggest lesson I’ve learned thus far.

I guess this is the part where I tell you hat I've learned? I don't know if this paper is quite what your looking for but I gave it a go. Well through out this course I have learned to deal with stress a lot better, it hasn't been easy for me ,I never went to school pretty much everything I have learned is threw work, course related material and personal study so what do you expect. I have also learned that if you give something a go and don't give up things will only get better, it's easier to move forwards rather than backwards and if you take a step back and reflect on things and set a goal and a few plans,things will move a lot smoother and make it easier to take that next step forward.