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BeckyDem

(8,361 posts)
Mon May 1, 2023, 11:48 AM May 2023

Failure isn't shameful - in fact, it's the perfect reason to have an ice-cream

Emma Beddington
Monday, May 1, 2023

High school students in the US are tackling the brutal process of college applications with rejection parties, the New York Times reported last week. At one school, students bring along a printout of their college rejections, ceremonially feed them into a shredder, then get an ice-cream; there is a prize for the most rejected. It sounds wonderful: a cathartic, collective “screw you” to a broken system, using fun to salve the pain.

I wonder if owning rejection is easier in the US, where there is at least a partial sense that failure is OK; it’s considered a learning opportunity and a key part of the origin story. The Silicon Valley motto “fail fast, fail often” took hold because failure was seen as indicative of audacity and a willingness to try. Rejection is a particularly stinging subset of failure, but the principle remains: you took the shot; it didn’t pay off; you try again.

The issue with that narrative – and with lots of failosophy – is that it implies a redemptive arc, a high point from which you can point back to the days in the doldrums and say: look at me now. But life is generally a haphazard stagger around, rather than a cinematic journey – and we know that, really. I think this is why the basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo’s angrily articulate response to a question about whether his season was a failure went viral: “Some days you’re able to be successful, some days you’re not … Simple as that.”

The maturity and emotional honesty of these kids is shaming and inspiring. I have always hidden my rejections like dirty secrets and done everything I can to avoid getting more – meaning, of course, that I never take the shot.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/01/failure-isnt-shameful-in-fact-its-the-perfect-reason-to-have-an-ice-cream?CMP=share_btn_tw


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Failure isn't shameful - in fact, it's the perfect reason to have an ice-cream (Original Post) BeckyDem May 2023 OP
This is a great philosophy/attitude toward life's failures. LoisB May 2023 #1
I think so too. I worry about the youth of our country. BeckyDem May 2023 #2
I agree with you 100%. There needs to be more mental health practitioners available in schools, LoisB May 2023 #4
Exactly. +1 BeckyDem May 2023 #6
A great attitude indeed ..... anciano May 2023 #3
I am with you there. LoisB May 2023 #5

BeckyDem

(8,361 posts)
2. I think so too. I worry about the youth of our country.
Mon May 1, 2023, 02:03 PM
May 2023

So much they have had to deal with..pandemic, and horrifying gun violence.

LoisB

(8,261 posts)
4. I agree with you 100%. There needs to be more mental health practitioners available in schools,
Mon May 1, 2023, 02:30 PM
May 2023

people equipped to spot a potentially suicidal youngster or one whose personality has changed in the year or two they were isolated from their peers. Getting shot in school was something that would never have made any list of things that I feared as a young person.

anciano

(1,494 posts)
3. A great attitude indeed .....
Mon May 1, 2023, 02:16 PM
May 2023

I personally don't need any arbitrary external approval to feel good about being me. Happiness should come from within.

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