Most students are reluctant to write about failure. This is probably because you’ve spent the majority of your high school years trying to mold yourself into the perfect student, and any mention of a misstep will shine a negative light on your candidacy. Why highlight a mistake when you’ve accomplished so much?
It turns out that there are multiple reasons. For starters, everyone makes mistakes. Even the most powerful and influential people throughout history have stumbled along the way. Failures make us human, and they’re relatable. The issue with the idea of writing about failure is the mere mention of the word causes us to think of the worst possible things we’ve done. The things were embarrassed about and hope our parents have forgotten. But what about the smaller, less consequential occurrences that made us laugh at ourselves? This is where we tend to focus with our TKG clients. We’ll go into the reasoning in the bullet points below, but before you start writing, you should keep a few things in mind.
Great college essays about failure focus on the learning experiences that we take away from failures. They show growth, an ability to objectively look at our past and figure out where we went wrong, and a willingness to learn and work toward better solutions in the future. Yes, you need obviously need to write about The Failure. But the entire essay should not be a pity party. Explain what happened, but don’t forget to include what came next. Here are three things to keep in mind when writing about failure:
1. Use failure as a way to show that you don’t take yourself too seriously.
Messed up a recipe on the night you were supposed to be in charge of dinner for guests? Planned a surprise birthday for your friend an entire month early? Think about the mistakes in your life that can be filed under “funny.” Temporary embarrassment is okay! We love the make the admissions team laugh, and you can show them that you’re A) human B) imperfect and C) willing to laugh at yourself.
2. Rely on your failures as a way to show humility.
As a 17-year-old, you do not know everything. No one does. A major plus of writing about failure is that you’ll be able to prove that you are humble and you’ll also show maturity. Something that people often forget is that failure inspires creativity. Your original plan didn’t work, where did you go from there? Your essay can cover the space and/or time period when you pivoted.
3. Don’t allow the way you write about your failure to rub the reader the wrong way.
At the end of the day, most mistakes that occur in high school are not life-altering events. Be honest and realistic about what you’re writing about. It’s crucial to keep the reader in mind. Obviously, the reader of your essay has also made mistakes. But you don’t know their life or what they’re going through, which means that you shouldn’t refer to yours in overly dramatic terms. This is another reason why we go the light and funny route.
If you’re having a hard time thinking about failure, try thinking about learning experiences. More often than not, they can be traced back to something. At the end of the day, you want to write about something relatable. And trust us, no one is going to judge you for failing --- just make sure that you’re covering how you grew from the experience.
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