Undergraduate / 'In failure, I find success' - Introduce yourself to Penn [2]

Optional short essay (approximately 150 words): introduce yourself to Penn. Our aim is to better understand how your identity, talents, and background guide your day-to-day experiences.

I've never made the soccer team. Calculus is as mysterious to me as the meaning of life. I will perhaps never be able to play guitar while singing. I have failed more than I have succeeded. I have cried, stomped my feet, complained. It doesn't help. I wipe the dirt off my face. Grab a blank sheet of paper. Find a G chord. I try again. Perhaps my only success is my ability to persevere; I am not afraid to fail again. As long as I have a passion, an interest, a reason, I continue. I refuse to let myself be defined by my failures. Rather, I define myself by my success-my success in persevering, that is. My mother always reminds me, "Successful people are not those who've never fallen. They are those who have the courage to get back up each time they fall." In failure, I find success.