I feel like I’ve made a post like this before, but it was something on my mind and in my goal of writing two blog posts a month in 2023 I thought it would be a good way to start the year.

“You know, it’s taken me a long time to learn. It’s okay to fall, to make mistakes. I’ve made lots…The trick is to embrace your defeats as well as your victories. You pay for both in the end.”

– Willow Ufgood, Willow (2023)

I knew that I wanted to write about this subject, but I wasn’t really sure where to start. Thankfully I had some inspiration from the new Disney+ show, Willow, based off the movie of the same name.

Personally, I’ve dealt with a lot of failures and disappointments in my life. However, I’ve always liked to remember another quote from Batman Begins (2005):

“Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

-Alfred Pennyworth, Batman Begins (2005)

I promise that this won’t be a blog post of just movie quotes, but those are some of the quotes that just kind of popped up in my mind as I was typing this. You may not be aware of this, but I actually took a year off of college after a year and a half of classes. It wasn’t because I wanted to, though. I had overextended myself so much that my academics suffered. I started as a Computer Science major and failed through almost all of my major classes. Even after switching majors from my advisor’s advice, it wasn’t enough and I was actually asked to take a year off to “re-evaluate” myself.

It shook me.

I didn’t go to a cheap college either. The three semesters I already accrued some debt, and I wasn’t going to just sit and take it as I moved back in with my parents. After about a half year of working at the grocery store I worked at in high school, I realized that it wasn’t what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Because of that, I took the initiative and re-applied to the college I left. Amazingly I was able to re-attend with some tools to help and four years later I graduated from that college with my degree in Broadcasting and Digital Media, focusing in Digital Film and Video!

The story here is to say: You are going to fail. It’s inevitable. The question stands: What are you going to do with that failure? Are you going to wallow in the pity that you didn’t achieve your goal or are you going to learn from that failure and carry on? The choice is ultimately yours. Let me tell you from experience that the latter feels a lot more fulfilling.

Do you have any stories of how you overcame a failure? Let me know in the comments or let me know in my Discord Server!