Personal Journal: On Defeat and Accomplishing Your Dreams

***Flawless

“The reality is, sometimes you lose. And you’re never too good to lose. You’re never too big to lose. You’re never too smart to lose. It happens, and it happens when it needs to happen. And you have to embrace those things.”- Beyoncé Knowles

We all have dreams and goals and we all work hard to achieve those aspirations. But sometimes, we simply lose and losing happens to everyone, even to Beyoncé Knowles. However, Beyoncé has given insight on how she accepted defeat and her insight help me to continue to dream and work hard for their realization.

Like Knowles, I, too, have experienced a crushing defeat; my story begins ten years ago .For the past decade, I have learned to play and consistently play the piano. Every week came a lesson entailed with scales, sight-reading notes and techniques. Then almost everyday, my parents made me practice for at least thirty minutes every day to hone my skills. The years pass and I have participated in my teacher’s numerous showcases; I was joined among several of her other students performing songs for our parents and close relatives. Up until my sophomore year in high school, these showcases were the extent of my public pianist career. That spring my teacher urged me to participate in my first ever NYSSMA Evaluation Festival, which would be hosted at Chaminade High School. Subsequently, the judge dubbed me as a Level 6 performer (the highest division possible) with a solid score of 94. With this in mind, my instructor urged me to aim higher: we were going to enter into a formal and serious piano competition next year.

As a budding performer, I was very intimidated but very determined to overcome this challenge placed before me. Of course, as a teacher, my instructor told me w...

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...me Grammy award-winning girl group, Destiny’s Child. Her quote on her acceptance of crushing defeat inspires me, to not only refine my pieces further and audition for another competition, but to also be content in my external and internal flaws. As Knowles has stated there is, “beauty in imperfection,” and acceptance of failure is necessary for growth. Hearing her say those words really awakened me to reach for my goals again and I am currently in the process of auditioning for another competition.

Since hearing Beyoncé’s quote (and her album), I have learned to see light in imperfection and to live fully and happily because life is short. There is no time for moping in defeat; we need to embrace defeat and welcome it into our lives. And this is what brings happiness and contentment.

Works Cited

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIv1z6n3Xxo {Beyonce quote}