Failure Is Just Another Word for "A Learning Opportunity" by Collin

Failure Is Just Another Word for "A Learning Opportunity" by Collin - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

One of the times I had failed, was in the first weeks of working at Baze Chiropractic. This was (and currently is) my first place of employment, so before this, I had never had a professional environment to work in. I was completely ignorant to many of the professional expectations of myself. After I became a bit more acquainted with the work and my duties as a Chiropractic Assistant, I started to be more vocal and conversational with the patients. One Tuesday afternoon, I was speaking with a certain lady about her work as I was finishing up her adjustment. She had told me that she was a Flight Attendant for Delta Airlines, to which I responded, “Oh, so what is it like to be a stewardess?” Her face went blank and asked me with a very stern voice, “What?” She then was very quick to inform me that this term was sexist, and that I should not have called her this. I did not know what to do, so I froze in the moment. She waited for some kind of response, but I had no words. I was so shocked in the confrontation, that I didn’t even finish the whole adjustment.
To her it must have seemed very rude and demeaning to call her position what I did; because she stopped my adjustment before I had the time to finish and went up to our receptionist, asking her to never let me work on her again. I had never experienced conflict in the workplace before, so I was definitely unprepared to deal with the situation. My boss and I later spoke about what I could do better the next time I run into a situation like that. He told me that first off, I should repeat their words, usually staying within their vocabulary to avoid situations like that. Also, he shared that I should first apologize, and then move onto finishing my duties as respectfully and efficiently as I could. I took his advice, and when I saw that lady again, I did not hesitate to apologize to her for my conduct. From then on, I have not ran into a situation like that again; in fact, I feel that if I would not have had such a confrontation early on in my work, I would not have the knowledge that I do today in working with difficult patients.
Though looking back on this experience does make me feel a bit embarrassed, I am not disappointed. I know now that failure was just another opportunity to grow, and that failure itself should not be something to be ashamed of. We are all human, and we will all fail at times, but what we do with failure is what defines us.