Personally, I think failure can teach us even more than success, but only if we are willing to accept it. Of course, accepting failure is easier said than done. It is a skill that we must develop over time because it often does not come naturally. Think about it: when you are in 6th grade and lose a soccer game, you probably are not going to want to learn from it. When you are younger, failure feels like sadness and anger. But, as we grow up, we learn to deal with our emotions and in turn understand the value of failure. I think that this was something that really became clear to me in high school, and was especially true in college. As we get older, failure becomes less taboo and more of a commonality. In the college process, I was deferred from my top school when my heart was set on it. With that experience I learned the importance of making the most of your options and a situation. I decided to apply to Richmond, was accepted, and could not be happier. From failure, I learned that sometimes it can open the door to an even better path. Looking back, there is no question in my mind that failing to get into my first choice school was the best thing that could have happened to me.

We often think that failure is automatically bad. But, failure can be inherently linked to success; it just might not come in that exact moment. Every success story most likely involved failure along they. This can be true with so many parts of life: sometimes, it takes a long time and a lot of wasted effort to find friends that you truly click with. You could be applying for countless internship after internship and get rejected from all but one- or all! But, with this failure comes an opportunity to learn. It allows us to value the times that we do succeed. Part of what makes success so rewarding is the obstacles we must overcome to reach it. If we did not experience the bad times, we we would not appreciate the good times. As cheesy as that sounds, it’s true. Failure is truly what we make of it, and I believe we have a responsibility to learn from it even when we do not want to.