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You're Not Alone in Failure

One part of failure that seems to have no purpose is the part where we feel alone. In those moments, perhaps, feeling like the only one who could mess up so bad or have the kind of failure. This is not an uncommon feeling, many people experience this. I have a story to share about the lonesomeness of failure. I typically feel this the most after I fail some sort of assignment, or test. I get down on myself thinking I am so dumb, or that I can’t be smart like other people. Sometimes my score may not even be a failing score. I could have gotten a B- but if my friends got Bs or B+s I would be upset and feel like I am not smart. I compare myself to others when in fact, that makes me feel even worse. Even though I may feel alone in failure, I have to remember something. Everyone needs to remember this: failure affects everyone. There is not one person who is exempt from this, not even the wealthy and famous people. Similar to social media only showing off the good things in life, people will go very far to avoid showing their failures. Just because we do not see or hear about other people's downfalls does not mean they do not exist. I do not share this for people to take advantage of others or tear them down, but simply to show that we all have experienced that feeling. We all spend so much time comparing ourselves to those around us, but that time can be spent in way more valuable ways. While it can be very different, and each person has a unique experience, no one is exempt from such experiences. Theodore Roosevelt also had failures, and one thing he did was actually address them. When things went wrong politically and during his time in office, he wrote many letters to other individuals addressing the failure or shortcoming. While a solution may not always have been proposed, the addressing of these issues shows that Roosevelt was not totally alone. The Theodore Roosevelt Center shares many of these letters and addresses in which Roosevelt discusses failures happening around him during his time of presidency. This all goes back to the mindset which I have talked about in many other posts. 
Jumping back to my story above, the picture I am sharing is from our National Honor Society Banquette day. These are  some of my close friends and myself. As I had mentioned above, I felt alone, and like I was a failure when I compared myself to others. Looking back at this picture I was not. I made it into the National Honor Society with my own hard work and determination. Even when I felt alone for not doing as well on my assignments or tests, I wasn’t alone, nor was I really failing when it came to academic successes. I realized that feeling alone and being alone are two different things, and that helped me understand what I was feeling about failure.


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