26A Celebrating Failure

One area that I have consistently failed in this semester has been trying to acquire an internship. I have continued to apply to position after position, in area after area, and time and time again I have gotten the same ending. I have continued to be left empty handed, and told that the company has chosen to move in a direction other than my own. My failure in this process has occurred in different stages at different companies. Some companies have chosen to break the news almost immediately, while other companies didn't reply until days, sometimes even weeks, after I have even done an in person interview.

While failure is very difficult to face and handle, it can be very reflective. I have found that reflecting on your failures can help you better yourself in the future. You can take advantage of the shortcomings you experienced, by working hard and reflecting, so that you make less mistakes, and become a better person. I normally just shrug failure off and try to focus on something else, and then go back and reflect later. I've found that for me, it is easier to handle failure when I don't think about it, until I am truly ready to accept it and work on it. This class has changed my perspective on failure because I have found that even some of the richest, most successful, most well respected people in the world failed all the time, and continue to fail all the time. It makes it easier to handle failure when you realized that everyone fails, including the world's best and brightest. Finally, I would say that I am much more likely to take risks than I was a few months ago. While I may do a significant amount of research beforehand, I am still a lot more willing to take risks than I was.