The Harsh Truth About Failure

I had just finished taking a ten-point quiz, and akalain mo yun, nakakuha akong ng ZERO, BOKYA, NULL SET, ITLOG, you name it. When I had checked and looked around other people’s papers, all I see are 7s, 8s and 9s on the board. Indeed, my parents would say, if the whole class fails, it’s on the teacher, but if you’re the only one who fails, IT’S ON YOU!! And that, I learned harshly today. I can admit to myself that I’m not a good test-taker, but I did not expect to suck that hard on such a relatively easy quiz. Just imagine, being the only guy that didn’t even score a single point. That’s like the only chef getting a 0/5 for cooking raw steak in Chef Ramsay’s cooking challenges in Hell’s Kitchen. That’s like missing 100+ free throws in one game. Heck, I’ve said over and over in this blog, but it’s like getting rejected by girls left and right. So to cut it short, I. SCREWED. UP.  

You see, here’s the beauty with failure, especially if you’re the only one experiencing it. No matter how minor or major it may be, your ego is bruised. You think you know everything, but you don’t. You think you’ve studied hard, but in reality, it wasn’t hard enough. So failure screws you up in the long run, but it makes you learn your what went wrong and what needs to be improved moving forward. It’s easy to say that when there are hundreds of others failing with you. But the failure gets magnified when you’re the only one who faced it. I know I’m being hard on myself right now, and that’s the first stage of failure. However, just like in any relationship or facet of life, I gotta keep moving. If I just sit back here in regret, nothing’s ever gonna happen. What concepts did I miss? How much more time do I need to study? How will I not experience mental blocks anymore? All that stuff. Failure makes me learn to not just settle with complaining and blaming others. After all, you only have yourself to blame. However, blaming yourself shouldn’t be the only way to handle these devastating blows to the ego. The steps of repetition and analysis of mistakes make me grow a lot from these “epic fails”. Sure, there’s the “Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda” aspect of it, cuz yes, there are things that you know now that you would have wanted to apply in the previous quiz. But, what’s the use of living life if we keep dwelling on our mistakes?

So to cut it short, the sky’s not falling and it ain’t the end of the world. Sure, it’s an “EPIC FAIL” knowing I was the lone wolf that got a 0, but it just means that my life path is a lot more interesting and full of perspective compared to others. If anything, this egg that I laid may have been the best thing that happened to me so far this semester. I know, it sounds stupid, but sometimes the stupid realizations aid us later on. After all, the important thing to do now is to learn and let go of the things that are beyond our control, and to focus and execute on the things that are within our control. To many more “EPIC FAILS” ahead. As they say, "Bawi lang." J

“Nothing is ever perfect, but the challenge is to try to get them as perfect as they can be. What can you do? It’s in your control. So control what you can.”  - Kobe Bryant

Yours truly,

Del Ro