Welcome back everyone!
As you can tell from the title, I’m going to be discussing why failure isn’t a bad thing, and why we all need to learn how to fail properly. However, it’s not going to be one of my normal advice posts. I’m going to be telling you a little anecdote of one of my funniest failures: my eighth grade science fair project. I think part of the reason it’s so funny is because it was part of that awkward cringey middle school time and it was a low-stakes type of thing, but it’s a good story to tell as far as failure goes.
I am definitely not a science-lover, but I’ve still always taken honors science classes. In my eighth grade honors physical science class, each student was required to create a project within the time window of late December to early February, and our class went on a field trip to present them at the county science fair in March. I was (and still am) confused on how to conduct an actual meaningful science experiment, so I just looked up “science fair project ideas for middle schoolers” online and scanned some articles for something that sounded easy.
I chose something about fingerprints (it didn’t really make sense) where I would test the ability of different forms of powder to lift fingerprints off a glass surface. It only took me an hour to do the actual experiment, and then I proceeded by doing my write-up and making my board for the science fair just like everyone else. I was able to kind of seem like I knew what the purpose of my project was, but I had honestly just been playing around with the powders and then writing papers on it for my teacher.
I had to give a presentation on my project to my class in preparation for the actual science fair when we would be talking to judges. I was so nervous for my presentation after seeing other people go and have these really cool projects that everyone was interested in, and I actually almost cried before going up (not even sure why, but I will say I’m not the fondest of public speaking). I got up in front of everyone and pretty much bombed it. Once I had to answer questions on my feet, it was evident I didn’t know what I was talking about.
Everyone just stared blankly at me while my face turned red and I tried to rush through the presentation. I could tell my teacher wasn’t impressed, but I was at least thankful to get it over with. I got the grade back a couple weeks later, and I had gotten a C. Granted, that isn’t a total failure, and I couldn’t have expected too much better, but it still wasn’t great. Most people had gotten As and it wasn’t supposed to be graded too harshly.
The actual science fair rolled around, and it was slightly better since I didn’t really care and it was only random judges that were talking to me one-on-one, not me talking in front of my whole class. None of them really understood why my project was relevant (neither did I) so they would all ask lots of questions to try and get information- information that I didn’t have. Needless to say, I did not receive any awards for my fingerprint powder project; the whole thing was just an irrelevant, mini-failure in a science class I didn’t like. However, the process of crafting that project and not really getting anywhere with it left a big impact on my fragile middle school self.
Clearly, it was another thing that helped me realize I just don’t enjoy the sciences. But it was more than that- it helped me understand how to fail correctly. Since I knew I wasn’t going to do well with the project anyways, I had picked an easy topic that didn’t actually make sense and had no real world application. If I was doing the project today, I would’ve picked an experiment that had some real world use- that’s the point of science experiments. Until that point I had always done well on science-related assignments even though I never understood them and didn’t enjoy them- I would just get by since it was easy middle school science without a real world purpose. This experience was humbling and prepared me for high school- I would have to try harder, even if it was a subject I didn’t like.
I hope this little story gave you a laugh regarding my immature eighth grade self, and got across the typical message: don’t be afraid to fail. It’s good for you since you’ll always learn from it (at least you should), and it pushes you.
-Brooke
adventures of a typical high school student 