November 6: A Failure
If you type failure into the search bar of Pinterest, you will find a few "epic fail" pins, but the majority of the pins are inspirational quotes and positive thoughts on failure. I found that interesting. My favorite quote from the bunch:
This semester I will be graduating with my associates degree, a goal I made when I went back to school three years ago. While I was doing my math homework the other day, I couldn't help but think that I would have had my degree in May if only I hadn't basically failed my Stats class at the end of last year. It really put a wrench in my school timeline, made me really upset and still frustrates me every once in a while. And then I remember what math was like for me when I was in Jr. high and high school.
I cried a lot of frustrated, angry tears over my math assignments back then because I just couldn't understand it. My grades quickly dropped below a B within the first two weeks of every term, which always meant that I was "restricted" (aka grounded) and couldn't do anything social until I raised that grade, so... until the new term started. Math and I have never been friends and I only took as many classes as I had to to graduate high school to avoid as much torture as possible.
When I got to college, I had to start at the beginning. My first semester I was doing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, (I told you, I struggled) and none of it could be done with a calculator. It was time consuming, but I learned and actually understood concepts (like adding and subtracting negatives) that I could never do without a calculator before. It was rewarding and I started to enjoy math even though I still had a mind block for it.
With each class, I've grown more and more confident in my abilities. I've been able to maintain a B in them, and some semesters my math class has been one of my higher grades. I still struggle with it, and it doesn't come easily to me, but I get so excited when I catch onto another concept that has been a struggle for me before.
My past experiences with math have made my more recent successes even sweeter! I am thankful for failure because without it, I wouldn't appreciate my accomplishments or my associates degree quite as much. I know how well I've been doing and achieving my goal at the end of this semester is a huge deal for me and will require a big celebration!
"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."
-Truman Capote
This semester I will be graduating with my associates degree, a goal I made when I went back to school three years ago. While I was doing my math homework the other day, I couldn't help but think that I would have had my degree in May if only I hadn't basically failed my Stats class at the end of last year. It really put a wrench in my school timeline, made me really upset and still frustrates me every once in a while. And then I remember what math was like for me when I was in Jr. high and high school.
I cried a lot of frustrated, angry tears over my math assignments back then because I just couldn't understand it. My grades quickly dropped below a B within the first two weeks of every term, which always meant that I was "restricted" (aka grounded) and couldn't do anything social until I raised that grade, so... until the new term started. Math and I have never been friends and I only took as many classes as I had to to graduate high school to avoid as much torture as possible.
When I got to college, I had to start at the beginning. My first semester I was doing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, (I told you, I struggled) and none of it could be done with a calculator. It was time consuming, but I learned and actually understood concepts (like adding and subtracting negatives) that I could never do without a calculator before. It was rewarding and I started to enjoy math even though I still had a mind block for it.
With each class, I've grown more and more confident in my abilities. I've been able to maintain a B in them, and some semesters my math class has been one of my higher grades. I still struggle with it, and it doesn't come easily to me, but I get so excited when I catch onto another concept that has been a struggle for me before.
My past experiences with math have made my more recent successes even sweeter! I am thankful for failure because without it, I wouldn't appreciate my accomplishments or my associates degree quite as much. I know how well I've been doing and achieving my goal at the end of this semester is a huge deal for me and will require a big celebration!
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