Learning is not Failing by Courtney

Learning is not Failing by Courtney - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

Our lives and personalities are built by the lessons we learn, they make us who we are. In every persons life there are multiple instances in which they will fail. Not every failure is a total loss, if you learn something from the situation then through my eyes you did not fail.
I had experienced many situations where I was so sure I had failed, but soon realized what I learned and how it made me a better person. One particular experience that stand out happened about a year ago. I had been sick quite the bit and was missing school frequently; i was behind and even despite learning all the materials on my own I wasn't able to get all the make-up work in on time which made my grade substantially lower than I would have liked. I got down and was upset with myself for not getting a good grade, but then I had to stop and realize. That bad grade did not mean that I was not smart or didn't understand; It only meant that I hadn't been able to meet the deadlines due to being sick.
Once stopping myself and thinking the situation over I had to realize that I knew just as much about the class discussions and work as everyone else in the room, but my things weren't in on time. From that day on I realized that sometimes grades do not reflect true intelligence, and that some of the smartest people in the world had a bad grade once or twice. These situations happen, but that does not make you any less capable of accomplishing tasks or any less knowledgeable.