Failure: My Junior Year On The Tennis Team

Although failure is something most people would prefer to avoid, it is something that can strengthen one's character and make that person stronger than they would have been without it. Failure is not the end, but the chance to start again. As Thomas Edison is famous for saying, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” In my life there has been more than one time, where I failed to live up to my own expectations or the expectations of others. What I have found though, is that the most important thing to do when faced with failure is to learn from it and move on. Coming into my Junior year on the tennis team, I expected to face some new challenges. I had come off a great Sophomore year, in which I held the 5th position on the team and

Knowing this I went into the season excepting to play the 6th position, but I did not put in as much work in the off season as I had previous years. When the season began, I found that many of the players that had been ranked under me in years prior had improved more than I had, and on top of that I was not playing well at all. This resulted in me starting the year ranked 10th on the team, 5 spots lower than I had been ranked the year before and 4 spots lower than my Freshman year. This was devastating and embarrassing for me. I had thought coming into the season that I would easily retain my position and maybe even rival the player that had been ranked ahead of me the previous year. I had a hard time dealing with my failure to live up to my expectations, and I struggled with the disappointment of not being ranked where I would have liked and not playing as many matches as a result. It wasn't until almost half way through the season that I came to the realization that the results I received were the product of my lack of