I am having trouble writing an essay for the prompt posted in the discussion title. You see, I sat down with my parent to discuss this and we really couldn’t think of a time I had failed. I know it sounds a pompous to say that I have never failed, but honestly I am a little ashamed of this. Sure I have failed: tests, quizzes, maybe dropping a couple of pounds, but I have never failed in a way that would resonate with the audience of this essay.
Normally I just wouldn’t apply for the scholarship, but this isn’t any regular scholarship. Awarded to one student in my class of 90, it covers the entire cost of tuition. According to my teachers they believe that I have a great shot it and I am “the type of person he (the “donor”) is looking for.” I was also told that the “donor” is a very conservative man, who grew up poor and worked very hard for his money. Not sure if that helps.
I don’t really know what I expect to get out of this forum, but there are some truly brilliant people on this site so I figured I would give it a shot.
One idea I had was to write about how never having failed on a substantial scale was a failure within itself. The only issue is that I don’t believe that I have never failed because I have never taken a shot in the dark. Personally I believe I have never failed because I work hard for everything I aim for.
Sounds like you are failing at writing the essay.
If you’ve never failed, it’s likely because you are sheltered and/or selectively only pursue things which you are guaranteed to do well at, ie: you don’t take any risks. It’s not uncommon for Millennials, etc. to do selective pursuit because they fear failure… I did my fair share of this behavior, myself. On the plus side, you’re protected from failure, but the downside is you don’t grow or mature as a human being… this essay topic is looking for evidence of your character, your grit, how you manage adversity and setbacks. Even privileged individuals can often find material for this topic, you just have to dig. (and as you go out into the world, you’re more likely to fail–sometimes it is difficult to find those failures in the insulated environment of high school)
Have you truly never failed? Never experienced a disappointment, or had something not go the way you wanted? Have you run for an officer position at school and not won the election? Expected a life experience to go one way, but it went another? Reacted poorly to something going wrong and learned about yourself? Failure can be social–a friendship going south, or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Not taking risks is, in and of itself, a type of failure. You could certainly get meta about it. But unless you know the donor is a bootstrapper, I wouldn’t use that “I work hard and thus I never fail!” argument, because that is specious. As I said above, choosing only to pursue things you’re likely to succeed at is actually very limiting, and probably not something someone who pulled themselves out of poverty will relate to.
I had a similar conversation with my son regarding “lack of failure.”
The reality is, you have inevitably failed, but you may not recognize, or recollect, it. Everybody fails. Even though they may have worked very hard to prevent it. Think about relationships, dreams, goals, sports, clubs. There is something there.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison