John C. Maxwell once said, "The greatest battle you wage against failure occurs on the inside, not on the outside".
I feel that failures are an inevitable part of one's journey towards success and by dealing with failures in the right spirit and learning from them with the right attitude, we can achieve wonders in life. Here’s a first-hand experience to prove my sentiment.
I completed schooling in a private school and joined CEG for my undergraduate program, after getting an aggregate score of 195.25 out of 200 in Maths, Physics, and Chemistry. In private schools, teachers take individual care of students and there is no imminent need for students to take initiative to learn outside the box. Having been brought up in such an environment, I continued to be lethargic even after enrolling in a government college. In my first semester, I had a course on Engineering Graphics, which was a diagram-based subject. As drawing was not my cup of tea, I disliked that subject. Ideally, I should have spent more time learning this subject and practiced more. But I was too ignorant. My instructor flooded me with assignments. But I assumed that these assignments wouldn’t contribute towards my final grade and was quite flippant about them. I neither did my assignments nor did I learn the subject. As a result, my internal marks reflected poorly. According to Regulations 2015, we had to score an aggregate of 50% in both internals and end semester put together, to clear a subject. But I had only 13 points (out of 50) in internals - which meant that I had to secure over 70 marks out of 100 in the end-semester examination to secure a pass, which was short of a miracle.
After completing my end semester examination, the impending results plagued my thoughts. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, I failed in my Engineering Graphics paper. I was shattered, worried and down-right devastated. Having scored 96.25% in my twelfth standard board examination and bagging a seat in a prestigious engineering institution, this failure appalled me! I applied for a re-valuation upon the recommendation of my parents, but all in vain. Now, the only option left was to take up the examination along with my juniors in the subsequent semester. I waited for six months to apply for the examination again.
Meanwhile, I inspected and examined the causes of my failure. I discovered that the cause of my failure was nowhere external. My hebetude and brazenness were the sole contributors to my downfall. Going forward, I submitted all my assignments promptly in all the other courses and spent time watching videos and referring to other books to expand my knowledge. I spent more time in the university library as well. As a result, I cleared all my papers in the second and third semesters with flying colours. In the third semester, I also registered for Engineering Graphics as an extra paper. This time, I worked meticulously and strived hard to learn the concepts and consequently landed an A+ grade.
My failure in this subject made me wary of unconsciously acquiring cockiness which had led to a heap of unsolicited quandaries. Nevertheless, it instilled in me Christopher Reeve’s belief that once you choose hope, anything’s possible.
