By Oscar Pinto
Failure is inevitable in life. But the key is to learn from that failure. Failure can help us in many ways. It can reveal weaknesses, build resilience, and teach humility, which everyone needs.
Failure to most people is, “to fail to perform essentially means that we are not able and, therefore, not worthy," according to Sacap South African College of Applied Psychology.
There are many perspectives on failure. In any high school, many roles deal with failures. Teachers, Athletes, and Aspiring journalists have their perspectives on failure in different forms. Even though failing is hard, it is worth it because it allows you to become resilient, a key component of the human mind.
"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." – Henry Ford.
"Double-Check"
Ms. Balado is a new teacher at Christopher Columbus High School. Although she might be new, failure has helped shape her into who she is today and she has a unique perspective.
“I think failure allows you to become resilient, self-reflect, gain problem-solving skills, and have a lot of humility," she said. "It can help you analyze what went wrong so that you can figure out you know how to do things the right way in the future. It can show you how to navigate future obstacles, and every once in a while, it's good to get knocked down, so you realize that you're human.”
Ms. Balado has brought DECA to Columbus High School. which is a marketing-based club, similar to FBLA, that is a growing community nationally and internationally. Through bringing and making an amazing club she first had failures at her old school with the club.
“My first year, when we did DECA when I was teaching, we didn't know what we were doing, and we had students put together papers. We missed the boat because we missed the opening sheet that we had to have...So as a teacher, I felt like I failed them because I should have known that. So, you know, it was a definite lesson learned," she said.
If you fail the most important piece is to bounce back and learn from those mistakes to grow as a person and the role you failed in. Different people combat failure in different ways. One way Ms. Balado combats this is through double-checking.
“I combat it by, you know, planning, making sure that I have my ducks in a row, by making sure that I check and double-check," she said.
"Best Way to Learn"
Andrew Ahrendt, CCNN student and senior at Columbus, has had his fair share of failures in his opinion.
“I think failure is necessary to learn because if you don't fail, you can't learn from your mistakes. It's the hardest way to learn because nobody wants to fail. Everybody wants to just succeed off the rip. But if you don't stumble, you can't you can't be greater than anything. You got to learn from your mistakes, to not replicate," he said.
CCNN is notorious for being one of the most demanding and successful clubs in the school. They are considered first in the journalism world and have won back-to-back national championships. In a club full of successful young gentlemen, everyone starts the same way, by failing.
The outcome of hard work in CCNN leads to Emmy award-winning journalists and national championships, giving great collegiate opportunities.
“By the time you're a senior in CCNN, it's just Delgado he's guiding you to get the best possible outcome. But if you didn't have those first couple years were everything you're turning in he says 30 or 40 different things to change, we wouldn't have gotten better, because we wouldn't have known what to change. We would have just kept replicating the same products," he said.
While CCNN is a Columbus club. Failure as an aspiring Journalist is completely different from a student as a lot of these works are submitted for awards/
"In my opinion, it's the best way to learn," Ahrendt said.
"Gives Lessons That Success Does Not"
Failure as an athlete is different from failure as a journalist. They both have one thing in common. That failure gives you lessons that success will never give you.
When you fail as an athlete you tend to look at yourself in the mirror more and see what you did wrong and how you can improve. For Anthony Scarcello, it's on the track.
"I think that failure is the best teacher because it gives lessons that success does not. When you fail you tend to self-reflect more and see the areas in which you are not putting in enough work. Your self-awareness for improvement grows and you're more encouraged to persevere. Failure allows you to build character, Learn, and develop to succeed later on," he said.
The importance of failure as an athlete is not the lessons you learn, but the journey you go through building your character as an athlete. You learn a variety of skills but importantly, you gain humility throughout the journey which is the most important part.
“The failure in the sport humbles you but makes you a better athlete as you become more on top of your responsibilities in the sport," Scarcello said.
Everyone deals with failure differently. For a cross-country runner, it's very harsh, especially at the state level. Columbus is notorious for pushing out some of the best athletes in the country at the high school level, the collegiate level, and even the professional level.
The pressure put on these athletes is elevated above regular high school standards. As an athlete at this level you have a lot of failure and pain and going through it emotionally is difficult.
"Failure isn’t the best feeling. But failing has made me mentally tougher. If you don’t fail at moments in this sport you are not trying. You are not pushing yourself to the max. This sport is very painful and mentally challenging. But through the failure and the pain I have learned to not care about failing and just put all I have on the line for the races. So, emotionally failure has made me not fearing to have a bad day, but also mentally tougher to go through the pain of running even though my body is begging for me to stop," Scarcello said.
All in All
All in all, failure is a natural part of life that helps us grow and improve. Whether it’s in school, sports, or other activities, failure teaches us lessons that success can’t. It helps us become stronger, more aware of what we need to work on, and more determined to do better. Teachers, journalists, and athletes all face failure, but they learn from it and use it to improve. By accepting failure and learning from it, we can get closer to reaching our goals and becoming the best version of ourselves.
Comments