Personal Narrative: Lessons Learned From Failure

When I was younger I failed myself and my family when I got held back a grade because I was not showing any progress in any of my subjects. I lost all of my friends, they began to talk bad about me because they thought I was not as Intelligent as they were. This effected me emotionally, I begged my parents not to hold me back a grade and to let me stay with my friends but my parents being tough said no, because school isn't about being close with friends, its about learning and making something of yourself. I learned a very important lesson the day I got held back a grade and that is to never give up and to strive to be the best in anything I do. I also learned that friends come and go, and that I can make more friends. I started studying every

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.

Having grown up in a time and within a society where the terms fail and lose are rarely spoken to children in any aspect of their lives, I generally considered myself a success in everything I did. I received medals, ribbons, certificates, awards, and trophies for academics, sports, and for just being a kid. So in my mind, for the majority of my life, I was unaware that I had failed or lost at anything. And having a father that is a U.S. Marine, failing and losing were not things that I wanted to tell him that I had done. Now that I am tasked to determine how I have grown from my failures, I realize that I have failed, that failure is not the end, and that I have excelled in several areas of my life due to what I have learned from those failures.

I started drawing when I was 16. I was cursing 10th grade, or how is called in my country, Dominican Republic “Segundo de Bachillerato”. It was recess. I was alone in my classroom that day, besides two or three people who were just killing time there, and I didn’t had much to do with my time. I was at the last book of a series of books which names I can’t remember and If I recall correctly the last book was very boring for some reason so I didn’t wanted to read it anymore. So, looking for something to do, I stood from my seat and walked boringly down the aisle of chairs and that was, not my first interaction with art, but the first time I remember i liked art or paid attention to it. Yerkis, a guy of my class: short, chubby and well mannered

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.

I've learned to become more attentive and conscientious of my weaknesses. I use my strength of persistence and diligence to resolve problems I find to be arduous. Two years ago, I was not meticulous, but now I've learned that every detail counts. It is not only about working hard, but it's also about working smart. It's about acknowledging my weaknesses and toiling until they are no longer my weaknesses. Math homework was never at the top of my priority list, but after identifying that as an obstacle in my success, I immediately altered the way I approached it. Math homework routinely became the first task I set out to finish when I arrived home. If there were extra assignments, I always finished them. Receiving a test that's covered with red marks, meant that I needed to understand what I did wrong. I started reaching out to my teachers and peers for their help and support. We created catchy chants for topics like Domain and Range. Overall, I would not have passed if I looked at my failure as a defeat rather than a delay and my goal as an outcome rather than a learning

When I first received a C on a math test, I was devastated. Throughout my entire life, I was always an A student and getting a C was unimaginable for me. I was so ashamed of this grade, I felt as if I had failed myself and I was beyond disappointed in myself. Thinking that this one grade was the end of my academic success, I had no more motivation to study harder or work to recover my grade. Thankfully, my mother showed me that getting one bad grade will not be the end of me getting good grades.

I was a first grader at Esqueda Elementary School. I had a mean teacher that never let you go to the restroom no matter how many times you asked. Would call your parents if you didn't finish your homework. I would get distracted easily and would never comprehend what I read and when she would ask me a question about a page we read and I would never give her an answer because I was not paying attention. Because of that, she flunked me and while everyone else got moved up to 2nd grade. I was still stuck in the first grade and had to meet new friends. I did not repeat the same grade with the same teacher, I had a nicer teacher and she did not flunk me. I did not go to the second grade there. I was transferred into a different school which is Eisenhower

My mom wanted to give me a second chance. This time would be different, and I could be known as someone who was smart. This would be the turning point, little did I know at the time. I was blessed with an amazing teacher who believed in me. She worked with me on how to read, and told my mom I was smart. The other teacher just never taught me correct reading strategies. From this point forward, I would excel. I made a personal decision to stop telling teachers I had epilepsy. It was well controlled and nobody needed to know. All I wanted was to be treated like everyone else. I didn't need to be given easier assignments, because they thought I couldn't handle it. I didn't need the special treatment. I wanted the opportunity to learn and grow just like every other kid on the block. After all, I was like all the other

In 5th grade I was really stressed about Miss.Murphy’s math class because I left my math book at school. Homework was due the next day and I had nothing to hand her. She wasn’t the nicest teacher in general, but if you didn’t have homework, she would scream and look at you with disgust. There was nothing I could really

Most of the assignments I didn't really understand and wasn't for sure how I was supposed to do it. I thought I wasn't doing it correctly.It made me extremely stressed out I had a lot of things to do. When I got home from school and wanted to do all the chores I seen that I could do the laundry. I was doing it in a rush and I wasn't paying attention closely. I hurry up and put all the whites in the wash machine. I knew it was going to take that long there wasn't that much in there. While that was getting done I was working on other things when I heard that it was done. I went downstairs realized that my mom's red shirt that has a picture of my brother, my mom ,and me on it. She loves this shirt til death and is now it is pinkish. The bleach made it look a weird tie dye. Everything that was in the wash machine was pink.

This also taught me that it is acceptable to fail, as long as you focus on succeeding the next time. Demonstrated by my later passing grade, I changed my study habits to focus on getting a better grade, and I got the result I was hoping for. Hard work and determination led me to be able to say that I did it; that I

PROMPT #2: PROMPT #2: The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

In my 38 years of life, I’ve had to overcome plenty of obstacles. When examining my life, especially in my younger years, it showed me life consists of an assortment of minor and major obstacles. Facing an obstacle, especially a major one, and conquering it, awards me a triumphant feeling. Furthermore, this feeling did provide me with determination, willpower, and courage to take on any future obstacles that life can throw at me (Harrington, 2012). This makes minor obstacles to become like a cake walk.

With most things in life, practice makes perfect, or at least close to perfect. Whenever an individual is introduced to a new way of doing something, it is expected that they struggle a bit, before fully understanding how to do it. This concept can be applied to various parts of my life, but most importantly, my education. In my first semester of college, I was in English Composition 101. Not having a teacher that was focused on interacting with the students and walking me through the writing process really had a negative impact on my learning. I had never been asked to write an analysis paper prior to that class and when expected to do so, you could say I fumbled the ball quite a few times. As this course came to an end, my ignorant teen