I don’t know how to fail. It’s not something I was taught whilst growing up, and now in adulthood, being faced with things that fail, I’m unable to cope sensibly. Academia teaches us to chase success, good grades and being the best. We’re never taught that it’s okay to be the worst, to suck at things and for it to be okay. We’re told to push and try harder, if you fail a class you’re suppose to study more until you pass. You’re never allowed to just accept the failure and learn for the sake of it. I was never taught how to fail, in fact academia was perfect for me because I was good at school. I was sporty, creative and smart. All my grades were As, whether it was Art or Maths or PE, all As.
It has taken me 24 years to accept failure as a natural part of life. To accept that I won’t always be good at everything, to accept that things fail because it’s a natural part of life sometimes. That learning doesn’t always equate success, that even in my biggest failures I can still learn and grow and be okay. It has taken constant failure in the last 7 months to realise this, but I am learning and will continue to learn from my failures.
Thank you for reading.
