Wednesday, July 13, 2005
stumble and fall
running down the homestretch, just seconds away from finishing the race. barely metres from the finishing line, i stumble and take a dive. as i grimace in pain and pick myself up, i gaze upon the end, which was just seconds away, but now.... it seems like an eternity away. frustration grips me. do i call it quits and walk away in shame or do i crawl along in pain and finish what i'd started?
failing subjects in uni (or anywhere else for the matter) is never a pleasant experience. it is an especially distasteful occurrence when a person is in what is supposed to be his/her final semester. the scenario in the above paragraph encapsulates the situation rather well, i think. i don't know if i'm just trying to comfort myself or whether it's true, but i do think that failing subjects has made me a better person than some others who have never failed, because i do believe that at some stage in our lives, we will all fail. it's just a matetr of when. so it might be better to fail at something relatively trivial like an exam, so that one learns to cope with failure and learns to pick up the pieces and persevere.
it is at times like these that the following dialogue by neil gaiman gives me hope...
Morpheus: It is sometimes a mistake to climb; it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt. If you do not climb, you will not fall. This is true. But is it that bad to fail, that hard to fall? Sometimes you wake, and sometimes, yes, you die. But there is a third alternative.
Todd: Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.
- "Fear of Falling" from The Sandman: Fables & Reflections by Neil Gaiman
failing subjects in uni (or anywhere else for the matter) is never a pleasant experience. it is an especially distasteful occurrence when a person is in what is supposed to be his/her final semester. the scenario in the above paragraph encapsulates the situation rather well, i think. i don't know if i'm just trying to comfort myself or whether it's true, but i do think that failing subjects has made me a better person than some others who have never failed, because i do believe that at some stage in our lives, we will all fail. it's just a matetr of when. so it might be better to fail at something relatively trivial like an exam, so that one learns to cope with failure and learns to pick up the pieces and persevere.
it is at times like these that the following dialogue by neil gaiman gives me hope...
Morpheus: It is sometimes a mistake to climb; it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt. If you do not climb, you will not fall. This is true. But is it that bad to fail, that hard to fall? Sometimes you wake, and sometimes, yes, you die. But there is a third alternative.
Todd: Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.
- "Fear of Falling" from The Sandman: Fables & Reflections by Neil Gaiman
thus spake satchithananda at 9:36 pm
