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Okay, ladies, I know when you read this title you were set a little off. You said to yourself “no way José, college is the time to grind and get my life together” or “Absolutely not, failure is not an option.” Hey, you know what, I’m right there with you. I understand what’s at risk and I know that succeeding in college is the end goal for all of us. I just urge to keep reading because this article might change your mind.
If you’ve ever experienced happiness (I would hope this is everyone) you probably know that the reason we are able to appreciate happiness is that we also have experienced sadness. The contrast between the two is what makes happiness that much more fulfilling. I don’t think it would be too far to assume the same is true for failing and succeeding. Without failure, there can be no success or at least success that is appreciated.
Yes, college is a time to succeed but I would like to argue that it’s more the time to fail. We learn from our mistakes; that is a known fact. We are in college to learn. So why not make as many mistakes as you can? In the past year, I have taken a whole bunch of L’s in both my social life and academic life. The thing is, I’ve grown so much more as a person with them than I would have without them. Now I’m not telling you it’s okay to skip every class and be drunk for three days straight (because that indeed would be a solid L) but I am telling you that you are in no way expected to be perfect.
Of course, graduating is the final goal and one we should all be boldly pursuing. All I am saying is that the road to such goal is bound to be messy. Ideally, we want it to be messy. If we don’t experience hardship before success, are we going to appreciate our success? The answer is sadly no for most of us.
If there is any time in your life to flat out fall on your face and fail, it’s college. Once you get out in the real world there are no redo’s or unlimited resources to get you back on your feet. Adulting is scary and doesn’t allow for failure a lot of the time. College is the time to experiment, the time to make mistakes, and the time to be utterly confused about life. If you don’t question what the heck you’re doing with your life at least five times a week, then you’re not normal. But hey if this is the case I congratulate you for your ability to make firm decisions when most of us cannot. It’s okay to be struggling and feel like you’re drowning right now, just know that everyone else feels the same way and that it’s only a phase of life. You got this!