Personal Narrative: Lessons Learned From Failure

Failure is an important part of our development as people. It teaches us lessons that we would not learn otherwise. These lessons can form a bases for future success. Throughout my life I have experienced failure on many occasions. In these instances I try to not get discourage, but instead use it to teach me a valuable lesson. One instance in which I learn a lesson from failure is when I was cut from the junior varsity basketball team.

I was cut from the Junior varsity basketball team my 9th grade year. Going into that basketball season I was extremely excited about the up and coming season. I had made the team both years in middle school and was excited to move up to high school basketball. Going into tryouts I was very confident that I would make the team. I had made it the years before and didn’t see why I wouldn’t make the team. What I didn’t realize was that I was not physically ready for high school basketball. I was devastated when I learned that I had been cut from the Junior varsity team and would instead have to play for the 9th grade team. The 9th grade team was for players in the 9th grade who were not good enough for the JV team.

I began to think that I would never make the team again. However, looking back this was one of the best things for my basketball career. I still had the opportunity to play basketball. After a while I began to see this as a blessing in disguise. One of the best parts was instead of siting the bench on JV I actually got to start. Furthermore, I was playing competition more on my level. This allowed me to better develop as a basketball player. Playing on the 9th grade team also presented some challenges I had never faced before in my basketball career. For the first time ever I had to be a leader on a team. This experience helped me grow as a person. It taught me leadership, which I wouldn’t have learned if I had made the