Failure Leads to Mental Growth by Daina

Failure Leads to Mental Growth by Daina - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

Ever since I was a child, I’ve always had the need to succeed at everything I participated in from school drama productions to academic finals. I am the epitome of an overachiever, and I used to get very stressed out whenever I realized that I might do poorly on whatever task I had been given at the time. Whenever a situation like this occurs now, I recall a saying my mom used to tell me: “there’s no point in stressing over what may happen, because you’ll never know.” She told me that I need to take ownership not only for my successes, but for my failures as well. “You grow from your failures, as well as your successes,” she’d say.
My mom has been an official teacher for about eight years, but she has unofficially been teaching my brothers and I for twenty one years. During this time she has told us many helpful tips and sayings, but this one in particular is my favorite because it’s the one I’ve utilized the most.
As I said before, I have a compulsive need to always succeed and as such I stress myself out every now and then. I can always depend on her saying, because it’s never proved to be wrong. Even when I know that I more than likely will not accomplish that great score on some test or get the lead part in a play, her advice makes me try my hardest. I’ve found that even the smallest part in a play is still worth the effort. I can still get the experience I want, and I can try again next time. Thus there is no shame in trying again, because failure is just a mental block that can be overcome.