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.

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.

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.

Overall, my first semester has been going pretty well. The semester is going like a roller coaster up, down, and fast. I have some bad days and some good days. Through this semester, I have many challenges I faced which I honestly did not want to face. Even though I just wanted to dodge or run away from the challenges, I still face them and fought through them. Some challenges I face this semester, hopefully not in the next, are procrastination, time management, and laziness. I have not only gone through challenges; I have also gone through successes. I am proud of turning assignments on time, passing tests and quizzes, completing my SCR points, and being involved in clubs. Being in Biomed has helped me grow as a student in the area of knowledge.

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.

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. As long as I can remember me have trouble with reading and I did not know why I was bad at it. My patients eventually came to the conclusion that I had mental problems with reading. I was then put in special reading classes to help with my problem. This brought down my self respect making me feel stupid. This went on for about seven year till I went to high school when I stopped being that kid in the corner. I analyzed my problem to the best of my ability to find out what the trouble I was having and I started to focus on the papers that were important. I got over my problems with reading and on my way to graduate. Overcoming and adapting to the problem that

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.

I have been in the Marine Corps for roughly three and a half years and throughout that time I have done many things. Most of the things that I have done were with Combat Logistics Battalion 26. For three years, I worked with that unit through work ups and a deployment and I have seen and done many unique things. However, nothing I did with CLB 26 felt fulfilling, but that all changed when I changed units to CLB 8.

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?

My guided lesson 3 went really well this week. This week the lesson had been implemented exactly the way it had been planned. The lesson began with students looking at the title page and making predictions about the book. Everyone had interesting points to share about the predictions they made. I could tell the students were really excited to read this book as it was very colorful and it got their attention. Before we started reading, I asked the students to look for main events that took place in the book as it will help them retell the story at the end. All the students were able to retell the story to me at the end. What went well the most was the fact that my students brought the main events to my attention on their own before retelling

I did not really learn anything new although I thought it was very informational for those who did not know about what a substantial source is and how to find out if it is a good one.

As I sat down to write how I have improved and what my weaknesses are it took forever for anything to come to mind. I kept thinking, “Well I did improve on this, but I would still consider it a weakness.” I was staring at my blank page on my laptop and my outline I did not come with any ideas. I excel at writing, and punctuation; however, I struggle in writing a thesis, comma splices, and word choices.

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