Nobody can refute the circumstance that our present-day society is an extremely competitive one. A great emphasis is placed upon winning, excelling, being better than the rest. The increasingly competitive culture of UWC substantiates this point; although admittedly it does do a very good job of balancing all the elements and does not put a singular strain on academic excellence. That said, the pressure is still on students from a very young age to excel in whatever they do: whether that be sports, the arts, music, service, activities etc. The competition gets stiffer still in the ever-evolving corporate world, where people vie for the best jobs with the highest pay.

Yes, success can oftentimes be necessary. And yes, it is great to win.

But sometimes we fail. Sometimes, we don’t win and we don’t live up to our expectations.

I can very clearly recall an example of my own, which took place during Cross Country. It was a big deal to me then, as a fourth-grader; it was my first time representing UWC East. It is still a big deal to me now.

For the following four years, I took every ACSIS title home with me as I progressed through the age groups, winning every single meet that I decided to enter. And I was extremely happy, satisfied even.

Come Eighth Grade. First cross country race of the season, and I felt ready to run to another win. And for the most part of the race, that’s what happened. Until I saw a girl surge past me at the very end, and it was not until the race was well over that I properly registered what had happened. My four-year straight streak of cross-country wins went up in flames. For the first time in my life, I was beaten at something that I fully intended to win. For the first time in my life, I lost.

Perhaps I judged myself a bit too harshly then, as I would just not let it go for ages and ages, nitpicking every aspect of the race, going over what I could have done better, my race tactics, overanalyzing every stride.

But I will grudgingly admit that I am glad for that race. Losing taught me so much more than winning ever will. It sounds like such a commonplace statement, but it holds so much truth. Here is my summary of the top three benefits of failure:

  1. Failure teaches us important lessons that differ for each person. One of mine was to never take anything for granted.
  2. Failure teaches us resilience. ‘A setback is just a setup for a comeback’.
  3. Failure pushes us to work harder for our goals. Admittedly, winning is a strong encouraging factor, as it shows you that you are doing something right. But even if you are doing things right, things can still go wrong. Failure tests your dedication.

Even though I called losing ‘failing’, for me it really did not end up being a failure, as winning or losing are not the only measures or indicators of success. There exist a myriad of them, some of them not unlike the ‘lessons learnt’ above.

Anyways. That was the first Cross Country race of the season. After a lot of work and improvements made in every aspect of my routine, I did (to my extreme happiness) win my sixth ACSIS title.

Yes, failure can be an amazing help. But yes, I still race to (hopefully) win.