Failure

Failure is the word that no one wants to hear. Failure is what no one wants to experience. Failure is what no one wishes to see, but failure is what makes us stronger.

Failures lead to Success

Freshmen year I had decided to take honors biology and the teacher, who taught that class, was known to be extremely difficult. My mom always made sure to check if I was drowning in biology work or if the class was too advanced for me.  I know that she had the best intentions, but it felt as though I was constantly being checked on to see if I was going to fail, as if she expected it. So when I brought home three failed quizzes in a row and my mom pulled me to the side, it felt like a huge “I TOLD YOU SO”.  The end of the first semester was not even near and I felt like a failure.  We had a long argument over if I should drop the class or continue.  I said no matter what, I will continue and she walked away form the conversation, abandoning the support she had for me and adopting disappointment to take its place.  Even with failure peering over my shoulder I continued to work hard and study and stay attentive in class.  The next quiz I brought home was over 100%, the next test was an A, and I received third place and over  100% on my science fair project.  My failures at the beginning of the year and my mom making sure that I knew I was failing pushed me to perform better.  I worked so that I could prove them wrong, that the class was too easy for me instead of too difficult.

Image by Artpromotivate (quote by Vincent Van Gogh)

I do not believe that success is possible without the existence of failure.  Failure is the fuel that pushes everyone to succeed.  People have to fail over and over and over again until they figure out the right outcome.  The iPhone did not just appear, Rome was not built in one day, and the United States did not win every battle in WW2, but they still were on the winning side.

Image by US Navy

Personally, I know that I have had several failures in my life and some, such as my failures in school, have pushed me to try harder and do better.

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.”

-Ernest Hemingway

If you do not know what failure looks like, just go to a high school or a college and look around at the students.  They fail everyday, whether it be a small failure or a huge one, but most push through the failure.  In the book I am currently reading, All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, one of the main characters named Finch feels as though he failed his family and that is why is dad left them, because he was not good enough.  He is constantly talking about how he let others down and how he will disappoint the other main character, Violet. Failure can tear people down and some may not recover, but it does make them stronger even if they do not believe it.

   TED Talk

For my english class, we have created a unit question that asks: How does fear play a role in our failures and successes?  I believe that fear can have an affect on our failures because everyone fears failure.  We are unable to escape failure and that is not a fun idea to ponder, but failure is just part of life, failure is how we learn to succeed.

Four Letters, One Word

Four letters, one word: Love.

We are taught what love is at a very young age by our older relatives or peers.  So we have a general idea of love from the affection our parents show us and the Disney movies we have seen that usually have a princess finding true love with a prince in the matter of days or weeks.  In these type of movies or stories there is no truth to the story, there is no true meaning of love, there is only a false portrayal. To truly figure out what love really is, people need to experience so much more than just having a relationship with another boy or girl.  They should start by loving themselves and then their family because those two people will almost always love you back even if you do not think so.

The word “love” used to have such a strong meaning, but now it is said so often that most people, especially teenagers, do not understand what real love is.  Each individual develops a different view of love from the environment they have grown up in and what they experience in life.  Social media has corrupted the meaning of love by saying things such as: you have to be communicating with the person you “love” 24/7, the guy has to buy the girl gifts and serve her every need, and that you have to say “I love you” back to your partner even if you are not ready.

When you are in love, you should not feel obligated to buy the other person gifts.  When you are in love, you should want to. When you are in love, you should not feel pressured into saying that you love them back because for some people, love is more than texting into late hours and going on dates.

^“4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7New International Version (NIV))

In my AP English class, we have a question about how childhood upbringings influence how we love in our later years.  This question, which is the reason I wrote this blog post about love, can be answered and interpreted in several ways.  My interpretation stems from my own childhood experiences and what I have been told what love is.  When I was younger, love was this magical thing that happened in my princess movies and books.  In primary school, love was my parents and any other happy person in a relationship.  Since high school, love has become a dead word to me because I have seen so many people use it and end up heartbroken.  Saying the that word to another is like placing your heart into that person’s hands and not caring what they do with it. 

Broken Heart

 

So many people have told me different things about love and that I should be in love, but in high school I see no point.  It seems too risky of a move and really time consuming.  I believe that to truly be in love with another person besides your family and best friends, people need more life experience and at the age I am at, there is so much more experience we need to gain.

Never Enough Time

As I have become older, I feel as though I am always running out of time or there is never enough time. When I was younger, school was longer, five minute time outs were the death of me because they seemed like five years, and a week felt like a month.  I was able to spend time with my family and have play dates with my friends.  Maybe it felt that way because as a young child you do not necessarily have things to do or things you should be doing every minute of the day.  You have all this time to take naps and play outside because homework only took 30 minutes.  Time, there was always so much time.

Clockwork

Sophomore year of high school was when I realized that my social life had begun to shrink and the homework load had grown.  I tried my best to make time for my friends and family, but there was always something to be done even when I did not have homework or tests. Chores, babysitting, work, and school consumed all the hours of the week, so it seemed, and when I did have free time it was usually at night when all I wanted to do was watch Netflix and sleep. I am not the only person who feels this way because I can hear the people in my classes talk about the same thing.  I think it is important for teenagers to have fun with their friends and do things other than homework.  They need to have time to spend with their family so that family has more of an impact in their lives.  It is boring to do homework; to not do homework is death to your grade.  So  we do the homework and study for the tests and ignore the adventure.  I cannot speak for every high school student, but that is what I do.

It is now junior year and this year I decided to take on a heavy work load like most past AP students because colleges want that, right?  I have developed a schedule to which I follow almost religiously:  wake up, go to school, go to soccer, walk home, sit on the couch for an hour, make dinner/help with dinner, do homework, go to sleep. My friends that I have hung out with since freshmen year are having fun and going out almost three out of the seven days of the each week and I am almost always home working on something.  I attempted to do things outside of school with my friends like hiking and having lunch, but now there is only time for soccer team dinners.

Schedule

 

Working hard in school so that colleges will accept you and getting a job so that you meet your parents expectations is everything now.  As you become older, time becomes more relevant.  You begin to realize that it controls your life and starts to speed up, each day faster than the last.  Truthfully, I fear that I will not be able to do anything worth remembering before I die because death seems right around the corner even though I am only in high school.  Is it wrong to fear time?  Even today I was afraid that I would not have enough time to create this blog post by the deadline. Time is like money, everyone needs more of it, but there is never enough of it.

 

Sharing Stories

Why do people share stories?

Generations of people constantly pass down stories, each time changing small details so the story will be more interesting or so people can understand the moral of the story better.

“That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future.” (O’Brien: The Things They Carried; pg 36)

In English class, I have been required to read a book called The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien.  This book is filled with war stories from the soldiers in the Vietnam war and emphasizes the fact of how important sharing these war stories are to them.  Some soldiers really want the listeners to understand the moral of the story or to believe everything that is said, no matter how crazy the truth sounds.  It is said a couple times in the book that the stories you would expect from war are not always the truth, but the craziest stories are the ones that are the most truthful.

“Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t remember how you got from where you were to where you are.” (O’Brien: The Things They Carried; pg 36)

Stories tell history. Mostly every fictional, non fictional, fairy tale, etc., has history behind it.  The book, The Forgotten Garden, has a character who loves to write fairy tales and she bases her fairy tales off of her life experiences.  History books are stories of the past and remind us what not to repeat in the future.  They carry morals too, such as not having a tyrant as a leader or what to expect when certain events happen like war.

“Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.” (O’Brien: The Things They Carried; pg 36)

Interesting Stories

When someone shares their story, we come to understand their point of view better, what hard ships they must have faced, or how lucky they were.  For example, the pod cast called Freakanomics had the President of Harvard as their guest and they asked her questions regarding her background and what troubled her growing up.  By the President of Harvard sharing her story of success through life, she could have also inspired others to work harder in life to reach their goals.  Stories inspire people, stories have morals, stories effect society.  

Your Story

Without stories, how would we know what went on in the past and what not to repeat. The world needs stories, just like the world needs water. 

I think sharing stories is important because it helps society grow and learn.  All stories benefit at least someone, whether it be a sad story, a happy one, or an inspirational one.  Everyone interprets stories differently, but the over all moral stays the same. The great thing about stories is that people are able to see the speakers vision.

“Yes, and I wanted him not just to tell stories, but to be a storyteller, one able to explain his vision in a way that allowed everyone who worked with him, from the boardroom to the mail room, to feel and live his vision.” (Clemson Turregona; leadingeffectively.com)

“Till It Happens To You”

Recently, famous singer/songwriter Lady GaGa released a song called “Till It Happens to you”.  This song is about a very important topic, rape on college campus’s.  1  in 4 women on a college campus will be sexually assaulted this year and a lot of these assaults will go unreported or justice will not be served.  This song makes me want to write about how important it is try and end this injustice because I have a sister in her first year of college.  I should not be afraid for my sister and neither should any  other brother, sister, or family member who has a person in college.  Today, it is very easy to be mislead by another person through the internet because of sick people who fake identities.  The internet can connect you to anyone you want, but how can someone feel perfectly normal talking to a complete stranger?  Even in face to face interactions, a person can still lie to your face about their true colors.  Not everyone is who they say they are and one day you could be alone with someone you feel comfortable with and terrible  things can happen.

“Until it happens to , you wont know, it wont be real” -Lady Gaga

“It’s been three weeks, three weeks of torture, of hating myself, of being alone.  No one seems to notice the difference, the difference in the way I walk, in the way I talk, or how I don’t sing anymore.  There is an everlasting dark shadow stalking my every move. It is as if no one understands, but I know there are others, too many.  It was just one party, one drink, and then…nothing.  Darkness fills my memories of that night.  Sickness and fogginess and his arm around my shoulder, maybe holding on a bit too tight. When will I feel normal again?  When will that one night stop haunting my every waking and sleeping hour?” (Unknown)

“I was raped. I guess I just needed to admit that. I know it was not my fault but I have trouble dealing with it that way. I hate this feeling. It is terrible.” (Shawnie)

“Till your world burns and crashes” -Lady Gaga

People get away with rape because when the victims share their stories, the rapists twist the story so they don’t sound like a criminal.  It is then up to whoever listens to the story interprets it.

Parents or adults should be teaching their children to not abuse and take advantage of others so instead they do not need to teach  their daughters or sons to be afraid during certain times of the night if they are out, to not be afraid to wear what they like, to not have to carry pepper spray or always look for a way out or a weapon to use.

“Till it happens to you, you won’t know how I feel” -Lady Gaga

Right Brain versus Left Brain

Right Hemisphere Versus Left Hemisphere

In my AP Psychology class, we took a test to find out if we were either right brained: creative and intuitive, left brained: organized and systematic, or both. This test caused me to question some things, would a left brained person have a far better advantage over a right brained person when it comes to achieving higher scores in school or finding a more advanced, well-paying job and would this effect them in the long run financially?

Right brained people are more artistic and learn from pictures, drawings, and colors. Most career choices in the field of arts such as, artists, musicians, and designers, have a majority of the people struggling to find jobs that will support them in the future.  In today’s economy, the year 2015,  jobs are rapidly disappearing, like water in California, so that means it would be increasingly more difficult to attain a job as an artist/creative person.  If I were to ask my parents if I could go to New York City and try my luck as an actress after I finished High School, they would call me crazy and say not in a million years. Why? They know that I would struggle because the chance that I will become a famous actress and have a good financial status is 1 in 1,505,000. The worst odds in the world, right?  So why do some creative, right-brained people keep pursuing their dream jobs? Maybe because they actually might work hard enough and over a long period of time become well known for what they do. Or, they may give half-effort attempts in trying to succeed and when they fail, live off of well-fare. Although, there is another result that could happen which is when the right minded people do not succeed in that category of work, they may try  working at a job that does not make a lot of sense and is not enjoyable. For example, an artist becoming an accountant.

Artist Trying To Make It In The Real World

Left Brained people, on the other hand, like the math,science, and structure of things and situations.  There are well-paying jobs out there, such as a doctor or orthodontist, that are overrun with left-brained workers. Majority of school is made up of critical thinking and if a person is able to use their skill of critical thinking, they are able to pass their quizzes and tests with high scores, go to college because of a high GPA, and have a higher percentage to succeed in life.  So, yes, being left brained seems to reap the best benefits when it comes down to creating a career, but there always is that 1 in 1,505,000 chance of becoming well known so people should not get all their hopes up when they happen to have a creative thinking process.