Failure doesn’t have to be congruent with every learning experience a person faces, it will not always arise with the simplistic lessons of life. To fail is to learn and grow. To succeed is also to learn and grow, and there is a balance between the two that allows the scale to be even. Let’s apply this to Northwood. To do poorly on a test is disappointing, as is looking back over study habits and thinking that the work could have used more time and attention. Was this a mere coincidence or a failure within a process? The process. And we learn from that process. On the athletic side, take a hockey game, for example, a player makes a bad pass which inadvertently results in the other team scoring. This player will hesitate to make this pass again without a second thought. That, right there, is growth.
When being asked if an individual needs to fail to succeed, Northwoods athletic trainer, Andy Donatello, states, “Some of the things I am most proud of have come as a result of failure, with an outcome of success”. He speaks about the accomplishments of his career and how certain failures have led to the life he leads today. We all will fail, at some point. And when we do, the people around us are the ones that build us back up, brick by brick. Word by word. Our communities are what make us whole, and diminishing the light in that is something that Northwood has never experienced. As a community, we need to embrace failure as a place for growth instead of resentment, accept it, give it attention, and together we will move along. Because what are we if not one?