Failure is an unavoidable part of life. It is going to happen at some point, but it is the way you deal with failure that truly matters. You can let it eat at you and destroy your confidence, ignore it and move on, or learn from it to improve yourself.

I have experienced failure many times in my life, but one situation sticks out as one that I will take with me the rest of life. Up until my junior year, my grades in school had been consistently strong, mostly A s with a B or two sprinkled in here and there. That was until I took AP Language and Composition and got my first C. It was excruciatingly painful to get a C in that class because I was doing all the work but still getting a low grade.

My grade was mediocre due to Socratic seminars, class discussions where everyone must speak a certain amount of times in order to get a good grade. We had these seminars during every class. These discussions were about a book the class had to read in sections. We then talked about the assigned section for almost the entire period. I am a somewhat reserved person who generally doesn’t speak much in class. I didn’t speak in class because I was always afraid I would say something wrong or that I would have a voice crack or something else embarrassing would happen. So every time I was about to speak, something inside me would hold me back from saying anything. This went on pretty much the entire first semester until I finally was just tired of receiving so-so grade reports. I just needed to make one positive contribution to regain my confidence so I decided that during the last class before the end of the semester I was going to do just that. That class came and went without me saying anything, ravaging any confidence I still had.

I decided enough was enough. I was getting frustrated with my poor grades and with my lack of self-confidence, so I decided that I needed to talk to the teacher. On the outside she gave off a hard and mean impression, but I didn’t care anymore. I spoke to her, and she was very understanding of my situation and gave me a few ideas. She said that I should start off the discussion with a question and see how casually I could enter the discussion. She counseled that once I did that, it would become much easier for me to become involved in the conversation. I did that to start off the second semester, and my grade only improved from there. Unfortunately, that was not enough to fully resuscitate my grade from what it was, but it was enough for me to get a 4 on the AP exam.

I believe this experience truly helped shape me into who I am today, and that without it, I may have never improved my self-confidence. I took a few things away from the entire experience, but I think the most important thing I learned from the situation was that I shouldn’t overthink a situation and that other people’s opinions or judgment shouldn’t hinder me from expressing myself. In the end, I am glad that I went through this experience. I am a better person and student for it.