Failure Research Paper

As a child, I never felt that failure meant as much as it does now that I am older. Unfortunately in high school, it is not as simple as tying my shoes; my shortcomings stand out. The phrases that had a major impact on my life

Sophomore year were "we believe you belong on JV this year" and "your grandpa committed suicide". Though these sayings are two completely different topics, they have one thing in common, failure. I failed to make Varsity basketball. I failed to know the truth behind my grandpa's death. It is said that high school years are the best of my life, but it is not mentioned that sometimes a failure can affect the rest of my high school career.

I never knew my grandpa personally because I was only one-years-old when he passed.

Unfortunately, I was never told the truth about his death. For sixteen years, I was invariably informed he died of lung cancer, which is true for the most part. The week I was apprised the veracity about him was the same week of basketball tryouts.

When next year's basketball tryouts came around, I never felt more confident in myself from being the JV basketball team's backup point guard Freshman year. I worked unbelievably hard, but I was cut from the Varsity team and placed on the JV team once again. When I discovered a freshman got the chance that was supposed to be mine, I was crushed. All the confidence and hope I displayed disappeared and I felt like a failure at basketball.

The words, "we believe you belong on JV this year", and questions were all overwhelming me: Why would I need a second year on JV? How would a freshman be more prepared to play on a varsity level? This failure brought out a new person in me—a person who would get down on herself about the simplest conditions. Everyone was counting on me to step up and win that position, but I felt all the hard work was not paid off; it was just wasted for another unchallenged, undefeated season on