Learning from Failure by Abigail

Learning from Failure by Abigail - August 2014 Scholarship Essay

I have always been a perfectionist. Ever since I started school I have been obsessed with getting good grades. Failing was never an option. Even a B was not quite good enough. I always felt like I could do better, like I had to do better. However, as I got to high school I learned that I could not always get straight As. I simply could not be good at absolutely everything. Even so, it was not until I was a senior in high school that I actually failed a test. Instead of ruining my entire future, however, the experience taught me how to ask for help.

I had been struggling in AP Calculus all year. I just could not make sense of the equations made up of combinations of letters and numbers. My brain did not work that way. Literature, Spanish, and even biology made sense to me, but math did not. Even so, I was unwilling to accept that it was not a problem I could fix by myself. I thought that by studying harder and longer I would be able solve the equations and get the A that I wanted. However, my grades in calculus did not improve. They actually began to worsen, until one day I actually failed my first test.

The result of that was my coming close to actually failing the class itself. I knew I had to change something. Whatever I was doing was not working, and I knew I did not want to end my last year of high school with my first failed class. So, I decided to ask for help. I met with my teacher before the next test to go over the topics it was going to cover, and he was actually happy that I wanted help. It was not a sign of weakness and imperfection as I thought. I learned much more than I had studying by myself, and successfully made my way through all of the practice problems he gave me. I felt much more confident walking into the next test, and sure enough, I got an A. That A saved my grade in the class; I ended up with a C. Not perfect, but definitely better than a D or worse. I also learned several important lessons.

I discovered that it is okay both to not always have the right answers, and to have to ask someone for help finding them. Failing that test did not ruin my life. It did not stop me from getting into college and studying the subject I love, literature. It did not mean that I was not a good student. I was still capable of succeeding. I do not need to know everything. In fact, I should not know everything. It is okay to need help sometimes.