Advanced Essay #1: The Idea of Failure

Introduction: For my essay, I tried to find the meaning and the affects that failure has and can have on a person and their goals. To find this answer I reflected on moments from my life where I had failed and wanted to quit because of my failures. I am needless to say very proud of my essay I think I took major failures from different aspects of my life and attempted to dissect those moments to find the effect that failure had on my life. One way I think my essay could be improved is to go more in-depth into what failure exactly is and how many people perceive it. I think next time my writing will hopefully be better than it is currently.

Tuesday Morning. I woke up at 3 o’clock with a sense of readiness to siege the day playing Ultimate Frisbee with my brothers. I made it to Von Coln field at 6 o’clock, walked through the early muddy dirt-covered field staining my new white shoes, I started throwing hoping I retained some of my practice from over the summer. I threw a flick and as the disk left my hand I felt nothing but sadness it just wasn’t where I needed it to be, I threw a backhand as I turned my hips and released I saw the frisbee leave my hand and curve to the ground. I realized couldn’t do the things I thought I could do and I was embarrassed and I had no idea what I was to do. “If you played last year you are with me and if you’re new go with Mr. Henkel. ̈” I followed Heinkel and the rest of the group hoping I would walk away from a better player who got back into the groove of things.

But I didn’t because at the time in my frame of mind I thought I was wasting my time doing something that for a certain period of time I wasn’t as good as I should have been I couldn’t pull it off, I had failed at something and after a while I wanted to quit because of my failure. I went home trying to search deep within myself to find out what I wanted to do and how I was going to bounce back after this setback. ̈ Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory ̈ Is what appeared on my phone during my moment of self-reflection, As I thought back about my day I had to ask myself where you trying or did you give it you’re all. I took a small failure and I almost quit because for a brief moment I lost faith in myself and my ability to deliver the best that I could give. The more I sat and thought about this small thing that happened to me, I understood that the failures that result in quitting happen to many other people, but sometimes on a much larger scale. It isn’t rare for people to let go of their dreams or goals, quitting after not making it to the place they’re expecting to make it to. I couldn’t count on my fingers the number of times I’ve thought or wanted to quit because of the shame that I thought came with failure, but giving up for me is harder than trying. Failure comes from every aspect of life, work, sports, school, and hobbies, but it’s your failures that make you better. I remember my sophomore year in high school, I was taking Geometry and I remember people telling me that this class wasn’t going to be good or that I wasn’t going to be able to complete the course. Hearing all this I went into class not believing in myself and doubting myself because of what other people were saying. We had taken a standards quiz and I had received my grades for each standard and they were mostly all 3s which indicated I needed more practice and should go get help, I didn’t get the help instead I applied myself and removed the words can’t or won’t. I ended up taking another standards quiz and received close to all 5s. The point I’m attempting to make is that I know and fully understand how people’s words or a person’s actions can affect the belief you have in yourself. The idea of everything being easy is just wrong if you know your worth you’ve gotta go get what you’re worth and not blame your shortcomings on those around you. Recently there was an Ultimate Frisbee tournament the first tournament for all returning players and me, needless to say, was very nervous. As soon as we arrived at Holy Ghost practice began. I threw a flic and although is curved a little it was nice and my backhand that followed was a little too high, but it was straight I was ready to play no matter what setbacks came along with it. ̈Jasir!̈ Leahman shouted. ¨Yes.¨ I nervously said ̈Show it to me.¨ Out of the three games I was in three times which I ran for most of it while I didn’t get the chance to do as much as I would have liked to, I didn’t take it as a loss or as a failure I took it as a building block to improve and to show my worth to my team and myself. I have goals and dreams like everyone else and I fight for them because if you fight hard enough the dreams that you dream and the goals that you now wish to accomplish will eventually come to fruition.