The word Failure is a word that is very often and always thrown around in high school. In my high school, they go by the phrase: Believe, Achieve, Succeed. This is something I, and everybody in my class was introduced to in 2007. We were all a little discouraged by the fact that teachers throw around the word Failure but go by that motto. As we moved down the road to "Believe Achieve Succeed" it grew to us.
Soon the only thing we could breath, think, eat and sleep was the motto our high school went by. Though we all went through hard times where that one teacher just loves to grade papers with straight 0%'s, but we all stuck to that motto we were introduced to in the beginning. The very first time I was faced with the notification that I was close to failing a class or a test or an assignment, I immediately went to a tutor or a classmate or family member for help. I was taught that Failure does not exist in my household and to become anything you must always succeed. That's not entirely true, I believe that to succeed in anything, you must fail first if you didn't apply yourself. Applying yourself is another thing I learned to not fail at. There were times when I just did not want to draw, calculate, read, and even think. I was inspired all the time by my uncle.
He is a musician/ actor that currently does many voice-over commercials. He was an artist like me, he writes music just as I do and we both apply ourselves. We believe that if we put our minds to what we love, that we can achieve every obstacle life throws at us. My uncle does not know how much he inspires me because he now lives in North Hollywood, California and we sort of can't communicate every day except through "the facebook". My uncle is very much one of my favorite people to look up to. Unlike everyone else, my inspirations aren't entertainers or father figures or Oprah, it's my uncle Barrie Buckner. I love when my uncle tells me how he is so proud of me, he expresses it through his actions and how he speaks his words, but that's his job, to convey messages positively. In my household the word failure wasn't even thrown around, the word we used was "Challenge". We could not fail if there was no challenge right? So therefore if you are put to the ultimate challenge and lose, then you are unfortunately a failure at the moment. Now I can't say I was never challenged, life is a challenge every day.
As challenged as life was, I was never alone. My uncle and many other members of my family were there and still here to help me when I feel challenged. With help of my family and me being encouraged by them and my own goals, I'm here working very hard to get into Columbia College Chicago through the summer bridge program. Since I mentioned the bridge program, I think I can talk about how my first day and week was there. The first day of the bridge program my goals were to be very social. I wanted to not be shy or nervous; I overcame that obstacle by being myself. Once I can be myself towards people I notice I'm very easy to accept.
The thing I work on most with myself is how I handle being in a different environment. I can completely shut myself down around people that don't share similar music taste and have hatred for sexuality. I don't feel comfortable around people that always pass judgment on others. If you can talk about people while they aren't listening, then what do you say about me? That's what I live by today also. Never being scared to be myself and care about what others think of me. I met a bunch of cool people in bridge on my first day. My main goal was to come out my shell and be "that little social butterfly" my Spanish teacher called me in high school.
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