26A Celebrating Failure
1) Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed -- whether in this class, or outside of this class. Don't spare any details! It'd be even better if there was something you tried several times this semester, and failed each time.
There have been a few times during this semester where I failed. Some of it was my fault, like not studying enough for a test and I ended up getting a bad grade. Some of it was due to my job, things I really don't have control over. For my exam that I failed this semester, I think I was overconfident in the exam, thinking that it was going to be easy and simple and that I didn't really need to study. That's why I failed. It was all my fault, I should've known that college is way different from the things I did in high-school.
For work, I'm a TA for a class and a lab technician. And these two things come together in the class. While teaching my students about lab processes throughout the semester, the professor and my boss decided to let the students complete lab tests using samples from my project at work. At the end of it all, I found out that all the samples had been contaminated because the students didn't use proper sanitary techniques throughout the lab. And for that I felt like I failed because I thought that I taught them very well and in the end, it kind of ruined my research project at work.
There have been a few times during this semester where I failed. Some of it was my fault, like not studying enough for a test and I ended up getting a bad grade. Some of it was due to my job, things I really don't have control over. For my exam that I failed this semester, I think I was overconfident in the exam, thinking that it was going to be easy and simple and that I didn't really need to study. That's why I failed. It was all my fault, I should've known that college is way different from the things I did in high-school.
For work, I'm a TA for a class and a lab technician. And these two things come together in the class. While teaching my students about lab processes throughout the semester, the professor and my boss decided to let the students complete lab tests using samples from my project at work. At the end of it all, I found out that all the samples had been contaminated because the students didn't use proper sanitary techniques throughout the lab. And for that I felt like I failed because I thought that I taught them very well and in the end, it kind of ruined my research project at work.
2) Tell us what you learned from it.
From these instances, I learned to take my time with everything. Put more effort into my studies and in teaching my students. I've realized its important to take away from everything that happens and use it as an experience to help you in the future. If you don't take your failures into account and see what your mistakes were, you will continue to fail and nobody likes to fail.
From these instances, I learned to take my time with everything. Put more effort into my studies and in teaching my students. I've realized its important to take away from everything that happens and use it as an experience to help you in the future. If you don't take your failures into account and see what your mistakes were, you will continue to fail and nobody likes to fail.
3) Reflect, in general, on what you think about failure. Failure is hard, isn't it? It's embarrassing, sure, but it also means that we have to change something about ourselves. Talk about how you handle failure (emotionally, behaviorally). Finally, talk about how this class has changed your perspective on failure -- are you more likely to take a risk now than you were just a few months ago?
Failure is extremely difficult to deal with. You may put so much time and effort into a certain project or idea or even relationship and in the end, it can really just fail. Failure can make you sad and take away your motivation to do any better. You make think "Oh I've already failed a handful of times, I'm never going to succeed", which is honestly what I think at times. But by practicing and experiencing failures, it can make you better in the future. Through this class and learning everything that I have, I would be more likely to take a risk now than I was a few months ago. I think that being a risk taker could really open you up to more opportunities in the future.
Failure is extremely difficult to deal with. You may put so much time and effort into a certain project or idea or even relationship and in the end, it can really just fail. Failure can make you sad and take away your motivation to do any better. You make think "Oh I've already failed a handful of times, I'm never going to succeed", which is honestly what I think at times. But by practicing and experiencing failures, it can make you better in the future. Through this class and learning everything that I have, I would be more likely to take a risk now than I was a few months ago. I think that being a risk taker could really open you up to more opportunities in the future.
Hey Jenna,
ReplyDeleteMy experience with failure was very similar to yours. I was also over confident in one of my classes for my minor and didn't study too much for it. I also learned that it is important to put your full effort into every class, no matter how easy you think that the exam may be.