Basketball Team Failure

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly”, Robert F. Kennedy. In 6th grade, I failed to make my school’s basketball team. When I look back on this time, I realize the lesson learned was far more important than simply making a basketball team. This experience allowed me to obtain a lesson that applied to all aspects of my life. This incident certainly played a major role in molding and allowing me to becoming who I am today.
After 3 strenuous days of basketball tryouts at West middle school, tensions rose dramatically as the group of middle school student athletes I was a part of competed belligerently for the disproportionate amount of 13 available spots. With over 150 kids participating, it was inevitable there would be an ample amount of heartbreak in the gym. As Coach Fonseca called the group over to center court, you could not help but feel the tension in the entire gym, every kid’s eyes filled with anxiety as each drop of sweat slowly trickled down from their bodies. As coach read down the list, I realized my chances were diminishing. Soon the list was complete and I, along with many other students headed out the gym, heads down.
Failure can be utterly
Of one is Arianna Huffington, her second book was rejected by 36 major publishers before being published, today she is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Huffington Post. Arianna Huffington has an interesting way of looking at failure which directly correlates to her lavish success, she says, "See failure as not the opposite of success, but as a stepping stone to success.” What I understand from this particular story is what I learned from my 6th grade experience, a lot of times in life things will not go as expected, but it is only considered failure if you give up. Success begins through believing in what you can do, with this mindset, there is no limit to what can be