It’s one of those things that you wish you could forget because recalling it just produces that strange, sickly feeling at the pit of your stomach.
It was during my third year of college, towards the end of the semester when final projects were due. The course in question was Corporate Identity and we had to create a portfolio website and merchandise and all that. I was getting ready to start working, thinking that the turn in date was the same that was on the college website. Instead I received a call from a classmate asking where I was and that today was the turn in date.
I can’t even begin to explain the feelings that came to me at that moment. There was panic, fear, nausea and maybe a bit of irritation at both myself and the teacher for allowing this to happen. How could I have not known? How could someone forget the date of a final exam? Regardless, I called the teacher and tried to appeal to her, showing her how sorry I was and pleaded for her to give me a final chance to turn in my project and no one would have to know but alas, she did not respond.
There were many trips and visits to the college, many calls were made and I had to sit many times with the head of student affairs. The ordeal lasted for days and I started to doubt myself. I started to wonder if perhaps maybe I was in the wrong. I probably was for not double checking the dates but I’ve always had problems with this teachers since the beginning of the semester. Regardless, the whole debacle was making me sick and nervous so I started to pray, asking god for forgiveness if I had been unjust and wrong.
In the end, I went to the head of Student Affairs and cried, telling her that I was sorry and I don’t want anymore trouble. I told her I was sorry for causing such a mess and I had taken responsibility of my actions. I wasn’t sure why I was so scared of failing the course that I had to go through all this trouble just to turn in my work. I learned then that failure is not something to be feared but something we could learn from and since then I began to learn and study my failures to gain a new perspective each time.
Discussion:
1] If you were me what would you have done?
2] Have you ever had a fear of failure? How did you work around that fear?
Quote of the day:
“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement“ C. S. Lewis
A to Z Challenge Update!
Week two has passed and I can’t believe I made it this far! I have to say it was a bit difficult to come up with words for certain letters and I recently discovered that K is not a letter a like. I’ve even considered stopping and quitting while I was ahead but luckily, I had friends who beat such a thought out of me with sticks of ‘Don’t you are!” and “You can do it!”.
And here we are today! Starting another week of the A to Z Challenge. It is definitely teaching me a lot of about being creative on the spot!
Happy A to Z, everyone. Good luck.
Silly Thoughts 