Ceren Selimata
We live by making mistakes. İt is crucial for improvement and success in life. But sometimes I ask myself: is it really necessary to go through the pain and bear the consequences? The answer is so simple, yes.
It was one of the most important days of my life, the high school entrance exam. The score that I got on this exam could have affected my choice of high school, university, and even my profession. While I was taking the exam, I was constantly thinking about the possibilities and the consequences of the mistakes that I was making unconsciously. I made a lot of mistakes that I wouldn’t normally do; I was astonished. How could I have done such a thing? It is the question that preoccupies everyone as they try to find an answer. Maybe there shouldn’t be an answer. We shouldn’t even be searching for one. The guilt and the shame that the answer brings, consumes us as time passes.
I was constantly wondering where I would be at that moment if I hadn’t made any of those mistakes. I still got into a high school that was good enough, but not great. Isn’t “great” the thing that everybody wants? I found out that it isn’t the most important factor in later success, because there will always be opportunities that we will face and have to make important decisions about.
In my first year as a preparatory student, I couldn’t see the good parts of the conclusions of my mistakes. As time passed, I realized that it wasn’t about failure, it was about learning from your mistakes to become an experienced person and try better the next time. Yes, the period of accepting this was almost unbearable and long, but it’s not forever. There will always be opportunities throughout our lives, and we should take advantage of them to learn new things and improve ourselves, rather than turning them down for fear of making mistakes. Taking up opportunities doesn’t necessarily make you an optimistic person; in my opinion it is just reality that we should face. We are not defined by our mistakes, but we thrive by them. When we’re in a very important situation, we’re terrified of what could happen to us if we make a big mistake, but we can’t find it out without trying.
I am now preparing my portfolio and CV for the universities in France; my high school gave me lots of opportunities and an education that I had never expected. There is no way to anticipate life’s experiences; you should just live and accept yourself for making mistakes.
My choice wasn’t the best, but in this case it’s the best choice that I could’ve made without feeling angry at myself and ashamed. It is essential to go through these phases in life. At least that is what most successful people do, such as Walt Disney; his former newspaper editor told him that his ideas weren’t good enough, but he kept generating new ideas. “I think it’s important to have a good hard failure when you’re young… Because it makes you kind of aware of what can happen to you. Because of it I’ve never had any fear in my whole life when we’ve been near collapse and all of that. I’ve never been afraid,” said Walt Disney, speaking from his experiences. So we shouldn’t be scared or ashamed of our mistakes; embracing and growing from them is the best thing that we can do for ourselves.