Monday, November 27, 2017

ENT 26A- Failure

1)    A failure I can think of off the top of my head is earlier in the semester I repeatedly failed at chemistry practice exams while preparing for an upcoming test.  I was doing dozens and dozens of practice problems, each of which had the same outcome, which was me going online to figure out how to do the problem. I did not have any other choice but to do well on the exam, and I ended up pulling two all-nighters in a row and finally figured out how to do the problems correctly. I ended up doing well on the test, but that feeling of repeated failure after time and time again of practicing was not a good feeling. I felt helpless and contemplated changing my major because of it.
2)    From this, I learned what I am actually capable of doing if I set my mind to it. If someone told me that I would pull two all-nighters in a row just to study for an exam I would have told them that they were crazy. However, when I was faced with a time when I had no other choice but to stay up all night and learn the material, that is what I did. It was extremely rewarding when I got a good grade on the test. I also learned that it is insane that students stress themselves out over a simple numerical grade that realistically means nothing in the real world, however that is a topic for a different conversation.

3)    In general, as much as failure hurts and can be difficult, I believe that it is vital to coming back a stronger and better person in various aspects of life. In the moment, I felt terrible when I failed. Maybe even depressed at times. However, whenever I look back on my failures compared to where I am today, I realize that those failures taught me valuable lessons that helped me get to where I am today in all areas of life. Personally, I handle failure in such a way that probably isn’t the healthiest. Whenever I feel anything but happy, I keep all of my emotions on the inside and rarely express how I am feeling to others. Sometimes it eats away at me, but in the end I get through it. I believe this class has had a positive outlook on the way I see failure. I don’t see it as strictly a failure anymore, but rather an opportunity in disguise. It is an opportunity to learn about yourself, and what you can do to become whatever it is you want to be. I certainly believe I may take more risks and not have second thoughts about it due to some of the things I have learned in this class, and regarding the people I have read about in this class.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Ben, I really identify with your chemistry struggles. I myself am not a natural chemist and I struggled greatly during my entire first chemistry class to study enough and get the grades that I wanted. I really like that you turned your failure into a positive thing and I appreciate that this class taught you the importance of taking risks.

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  2. Hey Ben

    I enjoyed reading your post on failures. I think it’s important that we learn from our failures in order to grow as an individual. Furthermore, I think it is important to take risks and know that it’s okay to fail. All in all, I believe that failure can be a good thing as long as we can grow and learn from our mistakes.

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  3. Hey Ben,
    I, along with many other students can relate to your troubles with your chemistry class. For me, I struggled with the class Business Finance. Similar to you, I had to do and fail at so many practice problems before I was able to succeed. But, that feeling of success made all of the previous failures worth it. Glad you were able to work past and improve from your failures!

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