FAILURE PROJECT
This project challenged us to reflect over a meaningful failure and how we adapted to in a creative manner. I hope to tell the story of how this failure has changed me and how I have overcame it.
THE BEGINNING
Going to UW Madison was always my dream. While there my mom met my best friend Charlie's mom. During their time in college they became close and ended up being roommates, somehow the both ended up in Cincinnati. They made sure we grew up to be Badgers fan and took us to games at Camp Randall.
APPLYING
During high school I worked extremely hard to get the chance to get into UW. I had a 3.85 GPA at one of the hardest high schools in Cincinnati, I earned a 32 on my ACT. I went on three different tours to the university, and too many weekends visits to count, all with my best friend Charlie. We talked all of junior and senior year about how we were going to be roommates. Sending in the application was one of the happiest moments of my life at the time.
REJECTED
My life and future drastically changed when I opened that email and read that line that I was not admitted into Wisconsin. I asked Charlie what his result was expecting the same answer, but then I heard something I didn't expect. He was accepted, and it didn't make sense to me considering the fact that we had similar a similar GPA, applied to the same school, and had similar standardized test scores. I was pissed and confused of what happened.
REFLECTION
At the time, not getting into Wisconsin felt like the purest definition of failure, but if this class has taught me anything is that failure is inevitable. Initially, I was confused and angry when I read my rejection letter, but what I have come to realize from my past experiences is that it might have been for the better. My identity is based on relationships and interacting with classmates, and after going to a large university the first semester I would not have fit in at UW. Finding the right place for my education has been a living process for me, and it is still ongoing. Looking back this setback became one of the most important pieces of self-actualization that could ever happen to me.