Failure's Lessons by Sydney

Failure's Lessons by Sydney - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

Competitive swimming allows limitless opportunities for failure. As a freshman on the varsity swim team, the pressure to succeed was overpowering. The thoughts of letting the team and my coach down overwhelmed my entire year. Still recovering from a shoulder injury, I stopped dropping time.
Hearing only the sound of my heart pounding, I immediately looked to the board to see my 50 freestyle time. I couldn’t believe my eyes; I had swum a personal best. I looked up to my coach and parents with excitement to see them celebrating. As I sit on the wall still trying to catch my breath, I thought about how just a few months before I could only dream of a successful season.
My first practice after winter break, I was training for the upcoming championship season. As I was sitting on the edge of the pool, jealous of my teammates who were swimming, my coach started talking to me. He thought I got out too many times to stretch and skipped too many practices, and that I should just give up. My shoulder injury ruined my chances of a successful season. Fighting back tears, I got back into the water accepting my defeat. As I swam for what seemed like forever, I was left alone with my thoughts. If I wasn’t going to get a best time, why would I keep swimming? Why would I put myself through more pain if there weren’t any obvious rewards? The more I questioned why I swam, the more I began to see the answers. I wasn’t swimming for the best times or rewards, I was swimming for the experience. Throughout swimming I was building character and preparing myself for problems I may encounter in my life. That practice, as my shoulder cried out in pain, begging to rest, I pushed through. I wanted to prove my coach and myself wrong. At the end of practice, I was proud of myself for persevering. I knew that it was a small victory making it through an entire practice, but it taught me the importance of diligence.
The failure I experienced affected my self-confidence and left me hopeless for the future. I felt like a disappointment to my new team and just wanted to quit. I never experienced failure to that degree before and I did not know how to handle it. Everything was always done for me and came easily, therefore my coaches held high expectations from my swimming. Through my experience with failure, I improved the view towards myself and the sport. I learned how to accept defeat and the importance of diligence. Failure is an important and necessary part of life. While in a seemingly never ending cycle of defeat, I never saw the benefits of my failure. Today I am better than before because I notice the values and lessons I have learned. I learned what it takes to be successful because it doesn’t come easy. Hard work and perseverance are crucial to success. I know how to accept defeat, because it will always be there to teach me a lesson. I can’t change the unchangeable. I needed to learn how to make failure work for me and in the future look out for what to learn during. What I have learned has diffused into every aspect of my life. I work hard and persevere through whatever challenges come my way. I accept failure when I need to and learn from every experience.