Free Essay: The Lessons We Take from Failure Can Be Vital to Later Success

For twelve years, I have been much into books and due to my strong work ethics, I rarely fail in whatever I set my mind to do. From my tender age, I was labeled as academically gifted and occasionally encouraged to skip some grades. Most of the Advanced Placement (AP) classes I took in high school never really challenged me until I joined HOSA-Future Health Professionals. As an aspiring physician, my aim was to combine my love for service with my passion for healthcare. I found that balance through HOSA- an organization for students that promotes health care career opportunities and trains students to enhance the delivery of quality health care. Finally, I found a club to challenge me academically, and that suits my career interests. As anticipated, I breezed through the competitive event levels: placing first at the regional and state competitions and winning a fifth place at the national competition during my freshman year. I consistently advanced through the hierarchy of leadership positions. As a sophomore, I won the title of North Carolina HOSA State President, but that was never enough for me. My next goal was to become a National HOSA Officer. During the summer of 2015, I contested for National Office and for the first time in my educational career, I lost.

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As I sat through the entire Closing Session of the 38th annual National HOSA Leadership, I was so much expecting to be among the people named on stage. When I did not hear my name called on stage, the entire world froze around me as the fact that I did not succeed. Although I was surrounded by compassionate faces and comforting hugs, the only thing I needed to do was run up to my hotel room and wallow in my loss. Pointless to say, I took this loss very negatively. My self-esteem was aggrieved and for nearly a month I slice up everything I did that could have probably caused me to lose. It was not until a good colleague gave me a pep talk that I recognized I had found the only impediment that could hinder my path to achievement: the fear of failure.

From this experience, I gathered that acceptance of failure is not intrinsic, it is learned. Due to failure, I must face the outcomes head on and learn from my fault. Nonetheless, I have already commenced to overcome this hurdle by learning from the failure of not being elected as an HOSA National Officer. Instead of regretting the loss, I took it positively as another chance to prosper. For instance, I am using the time that would have been consumed by officer duties to do further volunteer hours and work on my college applications. By changing the pattern, I am capable of looking on the constructive side of failure. In my imminent undergraduate studies, I am confident that I will come across several more failures. Though these will possibly affect me individually, they will not make me any less of a good, caring and kind hearted person.

To wrap up, Winston Churchill once said, Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Therefore, I am encouraged that my failure should act as a foundation for my future achievement. To meet with failure is not the end of the world, and I look at it as one more step on a constructive path to final success.