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Situation Based Essay

 

Life Changing Experience

 

Our lives are nothing but sum total of our experiences. Where most of the experiences make minute adjustments to our character while some reform the very core of it. These unexpected events alter our behavior in unimaginable ways. One such experience that had a lasting impression on my personality happened during my second year in college. To be precise it was the result day for 3rd semester.

 

Before College stress was just a word to me, I had never actually experienced it. In college, I had few hiccups adjusting to new environment. Consequently my grades dropped for the first time in my career. Nervousness was getting the better of me. My confidence eroded and anxiety attacks became the norm before most exams. On the other hand my roommate, who is also a very good friend of mine, made into the top 5 students that year. Upon introspection, I realized the problem was within me and not in the conditions. Rather than preparing for my exams I would ponder for hours “What if?". In my second year I started working even harder trying not to think much about end results, my self-confidence returned. I was strongly resolute to overcome it but the fear of failure was still looming around. I did fairly well in most of the exams but in one of the exams this fear got the best of me.

 

When the results were declared my worst nightmare had come true. For the first time in life I had failed. I did not know what to do and how to tell my parents about it. I just kept staring at my result. There was something strange about it though, in spite of the fact that I failed in one subject, I was just a few marks short of getting a distinction on overall. For a moment there I could not believe it. I checked it again and realized that I had performed exceptionally well in every other subject. The only subject I failed was the one in which I was targetting merely passing marks.

 

It was then, it stuck to me that it was fear of failure which was holding me back. I was trying to avoid failure all this while, rather than striving to excel. It finally dawned upon me that by trying to avoid failure I had already given away my chance to succeed. That particular moment changed it all. Since that moment I give my hundred percent no matter how bad the odds are. Even in most hopeless of conditions I do not accept failure until I know I have given it all. Because the moment I give up I have already failed without giving it a try. And as for that exam I did not apply for re-evaluation like the rest of my class did. I knew I didn’t want to be just the average. I wanted to outclass everyone else and the only way to do that was to re-appear. Eventually I did score the highest marks in that subject in my class. I have never looked back since then.