Failing within your lifetime (and why it can be a blessing)

Failing. The dreaded word. Nobody likes to fail, and it has been instilled in our brains to not fail in the early years of elementary school. It is unfortunate, but failing gives you the opportunity to learn about yourself, and your life. For a very long time time, I was one of those people. I never wanted to fail - ever. The idea of the possibility of failing seemed horrible, and if I ever did, I would feel like less of a person in doing so. Regardless of what I thought, I have failed a few times and it has only allowed me to give me a different perspective on where I actually want to be as an established professional. As a 23 year old, it is easy to feel like time is against you by the 'standard' way of living. 

By the time you are 25 you should be engaged, or at least in a steady relationship. By 26, you should have "it" figured out in terms of what and where you want to be in life, and by 27 you should be established. Turns out, that is not the case for myself, and many other young adults in this day in age. I still haven't earned a Bachelor's degree which I intended to start at the tender age of 18. Instead, I went through schooling to earn myself a two-year diploma which I can say gave me so much perspective. It is something I never realized how much it truly meant, and how much I love the field I studied for two years. I then decided it was time to go to university. But ironically, it was complete opposite to what I studied or ever had expected. I was in school, having no idea what I was doing and I was 22. This decision baffled me in so many ways, I decided to ignore it. I figured I can still study even if I wasn't as interested as I was when I was in college. Big mistake. This only lead me to failure (again) and I stopped. To some, this could have been an obvious mistake, but to me it wasn't. I am a very determined individual and the type of person where I have to realize things for myself, regardless if I fail or not. 

So what is my conclusion to the concept of failing? It will happen, but don't expect it. Live your life as your living, and if there comes a time where you fail in school, your personal life, your job, realize it can be a blessing in more than one way. Putting life into perspective is hard, but this is the beauty of experience. We are still young and are living in a time where school comes first, and pursuing a family and/or career, second. Embrace failure because it makes you humble, and realize too, failure can lead you to better things because maybe the first option just wasn't it.