Weisel: Don’t fail at seeing failure as an integral part of college experience

Let me tell you the tale of Freshman Elizabeth. Freshman Elizabeth thought it would be a great… Let me tell you the tale of Freshman Elizabeth. Freshman Elizabeth thought it would be a great idea in her first semester to take Introduction to Psychology, a basic lecture course that fulfilled a natural science gen-ed requirement and seemed sort of interesting. Then, a month into her first semester in college, Freshman Elizabeth took her first-ever college exam. A week after that, Freshman Elizabeth found out she had failed that exam.

Yes, the first grade of my college career was a stinging 57 percent — an F on my Intro to Psych exam.

And it was the best thing that could have happened my freshman year. So here is my advice for new students: Do not be afraid to fail. I’ll give you three good reasons.

Here’s the thing about college: It’s much more difficult than high school. It doesn’t matter how prestigious your high school was or how many AP classes you took; the majority of your college classes will be much harder than any you’ve previously encountered. They require much more studying and dedication. All that free time you thought you would have in college? That’s so you can work.

I didn’t realize this immediately, so I made the common mistake of thinking I could get away with barely studying for my classes — like I did in high school — based on the idea that I was “smart.” I thought I was getting away with it, until that first exam. Failing that exam was the wake-up call I needed to realize that college was a whole different situation and that I needed to invest more time in my education.

Failing in the beginning of your college career will snap you out of that inevitable delusion that you don’t need to study much or work very hard to get the same grades you got in high school. Even if you think you won’t need a wake up call, you can never know for sure. I thought I would avoid it, and I didn’t.

Another benefit of failing is that it demonstrates that you are trying something new and out of your comfort zone. For example, during my freshman year, a group of my friends decided that they wanted to start a prank war. My team wanted to steal a friend’s Tom Brady bobblehead and suspend it in Jell-O. Lots of Saran wrap, a plastic jack-o’-lantern bucket and some liquidy cherry Jell-O later, we had failed to suspend the bobblehead. The lesson? I’m really horrible at pranks.

But I’d tried something new. I went outside of my comfort zone to try something with my friends, and, even though it failed, we had a fun time doing it. This failure philosophy applies with all sorts of things, from classes to extracurricular activities. For instance, if you always wanted to try your hand at skiing, go on a ski trip. If you fail, at least you know you’re not good at skiing. Or maybe you think you’d be a great hip-hop dancer — audition for one of the crews on campus. If you fail, at least you tried.

Sure, it sounds like a cliche, but you can’t succeed at things you don’t try. You will likely have the most free time during your freshman year, so use it to try things you always thought you’d be interested in. And similar to how I realized I’m a horrible prankster, maybe you’ll learn something from a failure. That will just leave the door open to discover something else you’re good at.

Most important is the final reason for failing: Failure forces you to face your true character. If you want to develop and grow as a new, independent person in college, failures can help to test and shock your character. Before you build a new building, you need to knock down the old one with a wrecking ball. Let failure be that wrecking ball.

I experienced the largest wrecking ball in my academic life when, as a new student struggling with philosophy, I found that I was a failure at reading my textbook. There were words on the page that were just not translating into my brain and making any sense. One night, I got really overwhelmed and had a semi-mental breakdown about the class. After taking time to de-stress, I learned a few valuable things about myself, including my susceptibility to being overwhelmed when I don’t understand things, the necessity of time-management and reserving time to relax.

Understanding these aspects of my character was essential to my growth as a responsible, independent person and my success in the rest of my college career. Sometimes it takes failure to break you down, make you take a hard look at yourself and recognize the aspects of your character that need to grow or change.

Failure is an essential part of the growing process and a critical aspect of your first semester or two in college. Failing can be a wake-up call, it can show you’re trying new things, and, most importantly, it shows you the essence of your character. So despite what your parents or your teachers tell you, go ahead: Fail. It’ll hurt initially, but give it time. You’ll be better for it in the end.

Email Elizabeth at eaw62@pitt.edu.