Celebrating Failure

Good Afternoon Folks,

This week we are going to discuss some of my failures from this semester!

To start out, I was denied from an accelerated masters program that I had been working towards since my Freshman year. I definitely took a hit from it emotionally, as it had been apart of my college plan since arriving here at UF. I never had failed at anything major before so I did not really think about a backup plan if I did not get in. Initially, I lost a bit of purpose for being here and worried I would not be able to get a job after graduation.

Now I am planning on doing an alternate program that is a much better fit for me. I believe everything happens for a reason, and not getting accepted was probably a blessing in disguise. The career path that program offered probably would not be as enjoyable as the one I plan on doing. I learned that when one door closes another one opens. There are a plethora of opportunities throughout your life and many ways to get to the same place. I realized that it is better to try and fail then to never try at all because you become a better person because of it.

Failure tends to have a negative connotation, which is totally understandable. But people do not understand that you can make positive out of anything. Whenever you fail, you learn something about yourself and how you can make yourself a better person. I handle failure by initially being upset for a little bit. Then I go on a run and reflect on what happened and what I did. Finally, I make a plan to better myself so it doesn't happen again. This class has made me realize that I can take more risk. There are so many opportunities and all it takes is to get lucky once to strike gold. This class has taught me that calculated risk taking is an effective way to accomplish goals.