Student Blog: Failure and Perseverance

Hey readers! Welcome back to another blog. Today, I want to talk about failure. Sometimes, this sort of thing hits when you least expect it. Recently, I turned in my first big paper of grad school. I worked really hard on writing it, poured over my citations, and proofread at least a dozen times. When I finally submitted it, I was feeling pretty good about it.

However, when I got my grade back, it was not even close to what I thought I would get. In fact, it was probably one of the worst grades I have ever gotten on a major assignment. I talked to my classmates and found out most of them did a lot better than I did. So, as you can imagine, I felt pretty down in the dumps. My professor offered to meet with me, but originally I declined. “There’s no point,” I thought as I began my depression spiral, “I should just drop out.”

However, a supportive family member reminded me that it is just one paper and only worth 15% of my grade. I still have plenty of time to turn this class around. After a few days of moping, I decided it was time to pick myself up and persevere. Thus, I decided to meet with my professor anyway. They said the same thing: that there’s no reason I still can’t get an A in the class. They offered to work with me and even offer extra credit opportunities if I ended up doing poorly on the next assignment, which was the midterm. I worked harder on that midterm than I have ever worked in my life.

I got an extension so I could edit and refine it a few more times and I really took my professor’s feedback on the first paper into consideration when I wrote it. This time, I made my thesis and arguments a lot more specific and focused on the synthesis of my pieces of evidence instead of what they said individually. I have not gotten the grade back yet, but I feel like this paper will be the start of my redemption arc. Therefore, my advice to you is as follows: when something doesn’t go your way, give yourself a little while to be sad about it but do not give up.

Once you are ready to pick yourself back up, you can try again. Go to a close friend or family member for support if you need it. Remember that you are not alone and that this happens to everyone. If it’s a school issue, meet with your professor. They really are there to help. Everyone’s journey looks different and nobody’s journey is linear. Nobody excels at every type of thing, so naturally you are going to hit bumps in the road. That’s all this was: just a bump in the road. However, I kept driving, which is the most important lesson I can impart on you today. Never let one roadblock stop you. 

Until next time, Charlie Perkins