Perseverance through Failure by Jennifer

Perseverance through Failure by Jennifer - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

Failure has taught me that a person needs to be what they want to be, despite the title they maintain. Junior year of high school, I ran for Student Body/Council President at Kingwood High School. I felt as if I was the best candidate for the position because I put in more time to Student Council than anyone else. I would always stay late to help and act before being asked. The Student Council sponsors all told me I would make a great president. My mom and I stayed up late 3 nights in a row to make little ribbons and posters that said “VOTE JENNIFER”. I handed them out to all of my friends, who in return put them on their backpacks to promote me. I also displayed my signs around the school. The odds were looking pretty good for me to win, yet I told myself to not be disappointed if I did not.
A week later, I found out that I had not won; I had failed. I could no longer live my dream of being Student Body President and represent my school in this way. The person who did receive the title of Student Body President is not necessarily the best candidate for the position; therefore, I was angry upon receiving the news that I lost to her. For the next couple of days, I was disappointed in myself and felt regret for not doing everything I could in order to win, but this “failure” actually turned out to be a great learning lesson for me. Over the next few months, through the anger I felt towards the Student Body President, I realized that I was still the person that everyone looked up to and consulted with to put together ideas and carry them out. I learned that titles do not matter. Although I am not the Student Body President, I am still a very important and influential person within the Student Body. All in all, from my experience with
failure, I learned to not let failure make me less of a person and to continue to live out my life as best I can be.