Kyrie Langston
My name is Kyrie Langston. I love playing sports, listening to music, and laughing everywhere I go.
I believe what turns a failure into a success is the ability to get up and have the strength to learn from it.
Thomas Edison famously said, “I haven’t failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” Luckily, even after he failed, he persevered, and now we have light. When Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team did he quit and go home? No. He got to the gym, put in the work, and is now arguably the best basketball player to ever step foot on the court. Imagine if they had given up.
One of my biggest experiences with literal failure was in high school. I was terrible at math. Faced with the reality that I might not pass, I decided that I would do everything in my power to change it. As I put in the work, I began to understand it better, I passed my junior math class, I improved my math ACT score by 6 points, and passed college math 10.50 my senior year. Picking myself up from this failure not only taught me that hard work results in success, but it also taught me how to study effectively.
Unfortunately, there have also been times in my life where I didn’t get back up again after failing. When I was little I loved to ride my bike. One year my parents bought me a pale purple bike and we took it to our family reunion. My cousins and I rode all weekend! I was getting really comfortable on my bike and decided to attempt a wheelie. I was going really fast down the hill and SPLAT. I hit the asphalt and slid for what felt like a mile, needless to say it took weeks to heal and left some pretty gnarly scars. Because I was scared of falling, I have never regained my love for it and am still scared to get on.
Someone who has helped me develop comfort in failing is my grandpa. Whenever I feel scared of failing, he asks, “what’s the worst that can happen, and can you live with it?” When I was debating wether or not I would try out for basketball my senior year, he asked me this question. I decided against it and I ended up discovering myself. If I hadn’t realized that failing is not the end of the world, I never would progress as a person.
I am grateful for the many failures that I have experienced in my life. Without them there would have been no growth. I wouldn’t have evolved into the person that I am today, and I wouldn’t have realized the importance in giving a consistent effort to grow through everything I go through, whether it is positive or negative. Although failing is challenging, it’s our mindset that helps us not only overcome it, but to use it to create something better for ourselves, and those around us.
Thomas Edison famously said, “I haven’t failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” Luckily, even after he failed, he persevered, and now we have light. When Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team did he quit and go home? No. He got to the gym, put in the work, and is now arguably the best basketball player to ever step foot on the court. Imagine if they had given up.
One of my biggest experiences with literal failure was in high school. I was terrible at math. Faced with the reality that I might not pass, I decided that I would do everything in my power to change it. As I put in the work, I began to understand it better, I passed my junior math class, I improved my math ACT score by 6 points, and passed college math 10.50 my senior year. Picking myself up from this failure not only taught me that hard work results in success, but it also taught me how to study effectively.
Unfortunately, there have also been times in my life where I didn’t get back up again after failing. When I was little I loved to ride my bike. One year my parents bought me a pale purple bike and we took it to our family reunion. My cousins and I rode all weekend! I was getting really comfortable on my bike and decided to attempt a wheelie. I was going really fast down the hill and SPLAT. I hit the asphalt and slid for what felt like a mile, needless to say it took weeks to heal and left some pretty gnarly scars. Because I was scared of falling, I have never regained my love for it and am still scared to get on.
Someone who has helped me develop comfort in failing is my grandpa. Whenever I feel scared of failing, he asks, “what’s the worst that can happen, and can you live with it?” When I was debating wether or not I would try out for basketball my senior year, he asked me this question. I decided against it and I ended up discovering myself. If I hadn’t realized that failing is not the end of the world, I never would progress as a person.
I am grateful for the many failures that I have experienced in my life. Without them there would have been no growth. I wouldn’t have evolved into the person that I am today, and I wouldn’t have realized the importance in giving a consistent effort to grow through everything I go through, whether it is positive or negative. Although failing is challenging, it’s our mindset that helps us not only overcome it, but to use it to create something better for ourselves, and those around us.