Personal Narrative: My First Failure

Failure Failure is one word that no one wants to hear. It is something we all fear and hope to never experience, yet is a part of all our lives. We fail math tests, English essays, job interviews, progress reports; we all fail something. These are all easily measurable, tangible failures with calculable consequences. However, failure is defined as “a lack of success”. This “lack of success” extends much farther than just tangible actions. The biggest failure is when we fail ourselves. I fail myself when I am unable to reach my goals or cannot live up to my expectations. They are the worst experiences of my life. When I was thirteen years old, I was an avid swimmer. I had swum competitively for almost ten years. I worked hard day in and day
I cannot even begin to describe the hole that was left in my heart. My entire identity revolved around swimming and now that was gone. I had no idea what to do and what to think. The only conclusion I could come to at the time was it was my coach’s fault. Somehow, it was their fault I wasn’t on the team. That was my first failure. My fate was decided when I neglected to deal with my physical ailments. I left no choice for my coach; you can’t keep a cripple on a completive team. It was my fault and my fault alone. That realization hit me hard. It was unfathomable to think I was the one who destroyed this part of myself, but I did. That led to my second failure, failing
This was my first true failure and I gleaned insight I could have never gotten anywhere else. Foremost, I learned I wasn’t invincible. I was no impenetrable fortress incapable of collapse. I crumbled into a disoriented mess with one sentence. After the collapse, I learned how to rebuild myself and move forward. That was monumental in growing as a person as it gave me the experience to deal with future failures. In a similar fashion, I learned that failure is always an option. Prior to this failure, I had never really thought I could fail. I wasn’t so conceited to think I was perfect, but the thought of failure had never really occurred to me. Needless to say, that changed very quickly. I learned to always consider about the possibility of failure. I learned to look ahead and see where my actions were taking me. Whether I liked the path or not, I had the ability to do something about it. I will never let my situation get so bad that it ends up like it did before. Failure is still an ugly word but because of it I have grown as a person. I still do not like to fail or aim to fail, but I understand that failure is a part of life. I have come to learn from mistakes and move forward. I will rebuild my imperfect castle as many times as it takes and continue to move forward on the path I