GradHacking: Topic 2 Failure

Eric Riley March 20th

Song of the Day

Nobody’s perfect

You live and you learn it

And if I mess it up sometimes

Nobody’s perfect

Miley Cyrus

When thinking about failing the first thing that came to my mind were these lyrics. For a long time as a kid I felt like I couldn’t do anything wrong, as most of us did. You have this sense of entitlement when you’re younger, like no one can stop you. Going through school I’m happy to say I never really struggled. That’s not to say I didn’t work hard to get good grades because I did. I grew up in a family where when you come home from school you’re immediately doing your homework or studying for a upcoming test. The reason for the urgency to study or do your homework was really just to get it done so I could go outside and play with my friends, but whatever motivates you to get it done right? This mentality guided me through high school and into my early years of college. After finishing my associates degree I found myself searching for what I wanted to do, but I won’t dive to much into that for now. I went through trials on different degree tracks until I found the one I wanted which was Digital Media. Needless to say I was excited to find something I was truly interested in. I got to work as soon as I started my first classes trying to do my best, get good grades, and hopefully learn more about this subject that is Digital Media.

Looking back on it now I can remember my first semester like it was yesterday, Intro to Programming Logic, Basic Video, Web Design 1, and Studio 1. A full course load, because in the back of mind I’m coming out of my AA taking classes that are generally easy I figured why not. What could possibly go wrong! I started the semester strong going into the midway point I had good grades in every class, but one class was giving me trouble, Intro to Programming Logic. For those of you who have taken the class you know that for someone who has never written a line of code in their life the class is hard. I spent hours on hours practicing scripts, but it just wouldn’t add up for me. I kept trying but I began to do bad on the projects, really bad. I failed two in a row so I thought to myself is there any way out of this whole I’ve dug myself into. There wasn’t. I was bound to fail the class, lucky for me I came to this realization before the drop period so I dropped the class. In all reality I failed the class and got lucky. I didn’t want to give up though because now I saw the class as a challenge, not just to finish but also to do well. Next semester comes around and I sign up for the class again and I thought twice about signing up for it because I knew how I did previously, but I needed to take the class because it was required for my degree. So I signed up regardless of what my brain was telling me.

Going into the class for a second time was kinda nerve racking, even though I was coming into the class knowing the early information I was still shook. I had lost to this class once and I wasn’t going to let it happen again. I wanted to take control of my life inside the classroom and I did it by following three steps: study, practice, and ask for HEEEEELLPPPPPPPPPPP! First studying, studying for some of us is just cracking a book and reading and maybe doing some of the examples inside the book. For me studying wasn’t easy, which it’s not easy for most people I mean who wants to read their book? No one. Well some, but not everyone. I had to use my book and the ole YouTube. I can’t stress enough how helpful YouTube can be for you during college, whether you’re looking up how to do an assignment or you want to learn how to dye your hair. YouTube can teach you many things. Don’t be afraid to use it when you get stuck on something you’re working on for examples that you can actually see someone doing and listen to how they completed it. Next is practice, practicing when it comes to coding or anything digitally related is very important. (Practice is important for any degree I’m just putting it in reference to my experience) For this class I knew that in the book there were examples that I could go through and complete to help me become better at the program we were using, so sure enough I cracked that book and went to town. Now I did get stuck, a lot; too many to count. Which brings me to my next tip of asking for help!!!!!! Don’t be afraid to ask for your professors help on anything you’re trying to complete I don’t care if it’s learning code or learning how to read. These people are here to help you. I have to give some praise to my professor at the time Dr. Wendy Payne. She would stay after class, answer the phone when you called, get back to my emails, everything you could think of she was there to help. She’s amazing. In the case that you get a professor that doesn’t want to help you or is preoccupied by other things in their life, go find another professor. Don’t drop your class or anything crazy, just go find a professor in the same department and ask for help. More likely than not there will be someone more than happy to help you out. These people want to see us succeed it’s why they do their jobs. Overall, failing the class for me wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because I didn’t lose money, but it was a good learning experience. In life you’re going to be faced against things you wouldn’t imagine you could get through but just be strong, use your resources, and believe in yourself. You can accomplish anything you put your mind to and put forth that effort. With that being said I’m signing off and will leave you all with an inspirational video brought to us by Mateusz M.

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