My Driver's Test

My biggest accomplishment throughout high school so far has been learning how to fail. Not necessarily falling flat on my face in a viral video, but instead just barely coming up short and not being able to reach a goal, despite my best efforts. Although I was unaware of it at the time, failing my driver’s test on my first attempt would become a life altering incident.
When I speak of failure, I speak of putting one’s entire being into attempting a specific task and still not being capable of accomplishing it. Before I took my driver’s test, I practiced driving to and from school almost every day with my mom. When I actually took the test, however, I hit a cone trying to parallel park. A feeling of absolute devastation washed over me, as it began to dawn on me that I would not be showing off my new license to my friends the next day. Upon further introspection, however, I came to the conclusion that there was no one to blame other than myself; and that I may have not prepared for the test as much as I should have.
While I am aware that an innumerable number of students around the country fail their driver’s test at least once, for some maybe a few more times; failing mine had a superb impact on me. I had been utterly confident in my ability, since for me it was no different than any other test I

had taken before, but I had still failed. After another week or so and more practice, I was able to retake the test, and this time I passed. This revealed to me that failure itself isn’t execrable, but not learning from failing is. If I had not self reflected, then I may have been tempted to blame my shortcomings on someone else, rather than continuing to work and improve so that I could pass the test on my second try. My failure allowed me to personally grow, by realizing that something which is normally seen as a negative, such as failure, can in fact be turned into a positive if you use it to improve. Failure is not something to fear, but is contrastly something that should be looked at as an excuse to explore new ways of thinking.
Ever since that fatal day, I have since been able to parlay this revelation of failure into many other facets of my life. Failing my driver’s test was not my first experience with failure and it will not be my last one, however, before I had been deathly afraid of failure; I tried my best to avoid situations where that was likely to occur, by not challenging myself. I am a sprinter for my school's track team, and I began to experiment with other events that I had never done, such as the hurdles... I fell flat on my face (and no it’s not a viral video). Not everything that I do is going to be classified as a success, but if I can manage to make everything that I do, no matter the outcome a learning opportunity, then one day I can consider myself successful.
Whether we enjoy or not, failure is a fundamental stepping stone in accomplishing our goals, and without it we would remain stagnant and forever revolve in a perpetual cycle of mediocrity.

For me, my driver’s test was not the utmost detrimental failure that I have ever experienced, however, it is what came out of that failure, which makes it so significant. When contemplating this, a quote by John Wooden, one of the all-time best college basketball coaches, comes to mind “failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be”. The lessons that I acquire from my failures have made me capable of great personal enrichment, and have allowed me to look at failure

differently.