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Just hours after I shared my first piece with the Collegian Opinions editor, it was flooded with strikethroughs and questions about every word. I saw it and immediately felt I had failed. Yet I know now that failing my first article is the best thing that could have happened to my journalism career.
Life is full of opportunities for failure, but often, people fail against their will. Failure refines perspective. Although it can be a setback, it is the most crucial step toward achieving success.
Though I always wanted to be a journalist, I needed to accept how far I was from that dream. After seeing the flurry of edits on my first article, I was mortified. I never wanted to write again.
But amid those feelings of failure, there was something in me that wanted to try again.
Three years ago, I learned it is better to fail first than to succeed immediately. Paradoxically, that humbling experience increased my drive to become a journalist. I did not get better immediately, but over time I started to understand why I failed in the first place. I learned it is never easy to be edited, especially by your peers. Similar to papers, exams, or homework assignments, summarizing the extent of your knowledge on a topic is challenging. But it is worth the opportunity to grow in humility. Success in journalism is not about deserving to be published, but rather recognizing you can improve in your style, concision, and clarity.
Few things in life are as harsh and direct as rock-bottom failure. While it ranges from bombing a high-pressure interview to homework problems in baby physics, it is never easy. Our culture is not used to this. Instant gratification comes easy to us, who are always a couple of clicks away from an Amazon splurge. Participation trophies and their like breed a culture of entitlement.
Failure challenges the logic of instant gratification. Many people never choose to pursue what they will not succeed at, because their definition of success is simply participating and not excelling. Students insulate themselves in classes with an easy A, steering clear of professors or subjects with a difficult reputation. The average person dodges the risk, for the sake of security, but they miss the opportunity to determine what truly matters to them. Failure teaches you that achievement is difficult. It requires diligence and humility, and it compels you to try again.
In the high-achieving environment of Hillsdale College, we must measure success not by accolades or grades, but by effort and the willingness to keep trying. The best New Year’s resolution you can make is to fail and embrace those failures. Try something difficult and worthwhile, and when at first you do not succeed, wear those failures honestly.
I’ll keep writing for the rest of my life — I have failure to thank.
Anna Broussard is a senior studying politics.
