Struggle and Success (Guest Post)

My son, Everett, agreed to share one of his final writing pieces before he graduated. I am so proud of who he is as a person. It is so rewarding to see the gentleness and kindness he displays. Everett also continuously surprises me with what seems to be a limitless list of skills when I see something he’s working on. The latest of these is this piece he’s written that I get to now share with you. Enjoy.

Everett’s Senior picture photo by Matt Nichols

This last year of High School was a tough one, I won’t lie; It was not a pretty finish to my education, but I am all the more grateful for the experience. Regardless of what my grade says, there was not a single assignment that I failed, because within every missed opportunity lies another opportunity to learn. Is that not what school is all about? It’s not about chasing the big number, it’s about taking lessons to use in the real world.

I’ll give a quick run-down of my report card: English and Social Studies ended in the D range, Bs for Math and Science, and Cs for some electives. This doesn’t look great, but I’ve always been a glass half full guy, and this is only the first part; In self-confidence, I learned a lot about expressing myself, and ended with a B+. In Communications and Social Life, I had a rough start, but evened it out to a B- in the end. In work ethic I only got a C, but it was a lot better than previous years! Finally, in Fulfillment, I got an A++. These are the grades I really care about, because social laws are a lot more important than Boyle’s Law after school.

Though I say these things, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, and there were a lot of struggles. I dealt with loss, crippling anxiety, tests of character, and worst of all, my sister’s bunny bit me even though I am nothing but kind to that grumpy old fart. As stated earlier, these may have gleaned an important lesson, but they will still leave a permanent scar on my soul (and finger.)

If I had one piece of advice to give to freshmen, it would be “Make mistakes.” These four years of school are your sandbox, your training wheels or your life jacket. The things you do are in a perfect environment for learning about yourself and the world around you, because there are wonderful people who will be there for you, and peers you can learn from who are going through the same thing. In the real world, you probably won’t get that luxury. When you shoot for the stars, you’ll fall. A lot. As William Whewell put it: “Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhausts some tempting form of error.” The only fallacy to success is ignorance. If you learn from what you did wrong, and you keep trying, and trying, and trying, you can accomplish anything.