My heart sunk as I read the list for the 7th grade team basketball list. I had trained endlessly for months on end, waking up everyday three hours before school to complete rigorous training drills . My blood, sweat, and tears went into the sport. I devoted my every second to furthering my athletic abilities toward basketball, but as I read the list over and over again, I just couldn’t seem to find my name. The realization that I had not made the basketball team, despite my efforts, broke me like how one would snap a twig. I was devastated to say the least. I cried for three days after coming home after school. I didn’t understand how someone could try so hard and hope for so much, and be met with failure, a foreign feeling to me up until this point. Failure seemed like a death sentence. The word itself repulsed me, …show more content…
Failure in itself already has a negative connotation, but as a young teen, being not able to complete a task was becoming an outcast. If one can’t do an activity everyone else could do, then doesn’t that person become an outsider to that group? What I didn’t realize is that everyone is met with failure. After weeks of self evaluation, I finally came to this conclusion. No matter how much I tried to avoid failure, I would, at some point, be met with it repeatedly on multiple occasions. Thinking this, I stumbled upon the revelation that to fear a result that would be so prevalent in my life would be foolish. With the acceptance of failure as a more than probable outcome, I decided to attempt any activities and sports I could possibly sign up for. I was met with both acceptance and failure, but at the end of the day, I discovered more about myself that I had ever known, and learned to grow out of my shell. I realized there were some activities I was truly exceptional at, some I wasn’t so exceptional at, and some I had potential for, if I just put the work and dedication in. I found new hobbies I never knew I desired to participate in,
Elijah knew that the road to success was long, however, he knew that most this long road was unfair. Elijah reviewed about this past month which was a whirlwind, an emotional month in which he experienced the pain of reality. Earlier this month, he wanted to play for the Charlotte Warriors, the local AAU team. He desperately wanted to make the team, however, he wasn’t sure if he would qualify after the tryouts. He decided to try-out, for he had nothing to lose because of the
The article, Redefining Failure by Julia Baird focuses on the development of failure throughout time. Her argument addresses that the definition of failure has evolved over the years because with time and events the word becomes classified differently. In her article, she offers examples of different circumstances to effectively portray her stance on the topic. In Julia Baird’s standpoint, a person’s economic standing is not the most effective way of measuring one’s success or failure. Redefining Failure is a persuasive and effective article because of the way it is organized, constructed, and the numerous examples that it provides.
Today, I eat lunch with friends, I find comfort in my clubs, and sometimes, I fail. When I lived in Florida, I never had to cope with failure, as everything came to me easily. What I know now is that failure is an unavoidable aspect of life, and I know I’ll encounter it wherever I end up. When I moved up the East Coast, I learned how to face failure head on and accept that there are days when I can’t be perfect. But I am now able to learn from my failures and keep them in mind when moving
In life we all have encountered successes and failures, sooner or later. Although failure is dreadful, I can only learn from it. I have failed multiple times, but I matured and learned from the experience. I, being a teenager, thought a job would make me more efficient; however it was the exact opposite.
Once inside the locker room, I almost passed out. I slumped against a locker. I felt dizzy and weak. And then I cried, and felt ashamed of my tears. But coach knew exactly what to say. “It’s okay,” Coach said to me, but he was talking to the whole team. “If you care about something enough, it’s going to make you cry.
The lights flicker on as I sit up lazily in my chair. I try to focus on the television screen as it goes black. I attempt to recollect my thoughts of what I had just seen. Then it came back to me, I was watching another one of those same cheesy videos about someone who had overcome failure to accomplish something great. I didn’t give the video any thought because all I could think about was the 8th-grade boy’s basketball tryouts after school. I was excited about the upcoming season and was eager to join the team. I watched and played basketball every day, so I felt confident in my ability to play the game the right way. As tryouts began I noticed the other kids playing extremely well so I exerted myself to step up my game and play their style.
Many moments from our youth may fade while other experiences remain vividly embedded in our memories. Perhaps because, like a cut to our skin, an open wound, it takes time to heal. At the start of my sophomore year I was cut from the high school volleyball team I worked so hard to be a part of. All my life I have trained to be the best athlete I could be. I joined volleyball at the age of seven with a goal of being on my high school volleyball team. During sophomore tryouts as the final minutes ticked by the coaches started to call individual people in their office one at a time for cuts and unfortunately I was called. The finality of the coach’s words, ‘you’re not on the team anymore’ filled the room as my world fell apart. The practices, the games, the knee pads, the uniform—was suddenly present but
As I became older, entering my young teenage years in life, I took on the interest of playing sports for my middle school. I remember trying out for the girl’s basketball team in the summer going into the eighth grade. I know I had competition but I felt highly confident from the skills I gained during the previous years. Try outs were all morning and I caused my parents so much trouble from telling them in such a short notice. I anxiously waited for the final results, even though they weren’t posted on the gym door until later that evening. Later on that day I learned that I didn’t make
All too often we let life’s failures control us. It starts in childhood, and in my experience, people have two general responses to failure: 1. Give in and accept that you are “a failure”, or 2. Work harder to prove (if not only to yourself) that you are NOT a failure. The problem with these human reactions is that both of them can be dangerous to us in the long run. An example of the first response is a young girl who tries out for the cheerleading squad; she is nervous, and does not do well. Instead of trying again, she listens to the harsh criticisms of the other girls, and the critiques that were given by the judges, and she decides that cheerleading is just not for her. She could have succeeded, in fact, she could have been one of the
In the confusion i finally realized why I lost I heard my teammates cheering me on and the kid’s parents cursing my name. I saw this kid jump in his coach's arm crying. once I took this all in I ran away crying for first time 8 years, hearing Andre’s words again “first place or no place”. I ran to basement room in the school crying in a corner swearing up and down this would never happen again. The promises I made to myself made me realize something that day. It was never about my performance or choices. The reason I lost two years in a row is the simply fact that I didn't believe in
An incident in which I experienced a failure happened to be my junior year of High School. Technically it was a year of many failures seeing as how I wasn't doing my best in any of my classes. It was a tough year; to be quit frank I let my circumstances get the best of me. Not only did I fail those courses, I failed myself. These failures helped me realize I wasn't being my best self, or even doing the best that I could possible in all aspects of my life. It affected me in such a way that I decided to make a change. I allowed these failures to push me towards striving harder for the things I want and what I believe I am capable of as the year proceeded. It helped me raise the standards for my work, my art, my writings, my makeup skills, and
Traditionally, failure is seen as a negative concept and is defined as lacking success. I, on the other hand, try to put a positive spin on everything in life. I see failure as an obstacle that is experienced by all, but it does not define an individual. Failure in essence will force an individual to be more receptive to their surroundings and actions and also will force an individual to mature. Looking back on my childhood years I can now pinpoint the areas where I failed and I can confidently say that I have grown and prospered due to those failures. The three major failures I have experienced were my attention deficit issues which affected my ability to succeed in school, my anti-social habit that I let consume my early years, and my
Life sometimes seems scary. The fear of failure and the fear of the unknown make a person rethink its choices and goals, this happens all the time. As time passes, be days, moths, years or only simply one experience can change our whole vision of the world, about life, about what really matters and consequently about our goals. Throughout my whole life I have questioned so many aspects of my life, of existence, and consequently about my future. I never stopped wanting to achieve something big, that could change the whole world, some amazing adventure that would be the one thing that would give birth to all the amazing things that could happen next. As time passed I realized that life itself is one big adventure, and that what I will do every day will matter for me and for the people around me. I realized that life is not some perfect movie where there are good guys, bad guys and that in the end of one amazing journey everything would be solved. It may be a childish vision of the world, but it had motivated me for years to do the thing I believed would help me achieve this, and to believe in myself. Obviously as I grew up, I saw what the world really looked like, that sacrifices have to be made, that there are things which no one can control, that if I want something I have to work really hard. In today society everything counts.
When I first got in high school and participated in numerous extracurricular activities, I was stuck with the idea that if I am not outstanding in sports and clubs and do not have impressive grades simultaneously, I am a failure. If I cannot get into a prestigious college, I am a failure. There is a myriad of scenarios that I have imagined from days to days that will always end up with the fear that I am a failure. That fear is horrific and it still haunts me every single day. If I achieve something, I will assume that there are more people out there, at the same time, are doing better than me.
The summer before eighth grade I was told that there were going to be volleyball tryouts for the high school teams. When I heard this I got excited for the opportunity to show the coaches what I had. The older players cautioned us on how difficult and physically taxing the three days of tryouts would be. So, in order to prepare, I woke up early in the morning all throughout the summer to go running and do other conditioning exercises to get ready for the tryouts. I would take my volleyball and pass to myself against the side of my family’s barn. Once the day of the tryouts came, I couldn’t have been more excited. I showed up completely ready to showcase my skills. All throughout the first day we did testing and conditioning. I felt like I was doing pretty good. I was beating some of the older kids in some of the skills, and I felt like my chances were pretty good. Day two was more of the same from day one. But then, at the end of day two, the coach pulled another eighth grader and me aside. We knew that she was going to tell us if we had made the team or not. We were realistic and weren’t expecting