'Whenever you plan, you should always start early, since anything can happen'; CommonApp essay

Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?

The annual talent show is held at school about halfway through every academic year. In my second year of high school, my friends and I decided to form a band and participate by performing a famous rock song. We decided to meet up about two weeks before the actual event to decide on a song and have our first practice. As time passed, we got better and started to sound better, but our lead singer decided to drop out since he felt afraid. Our attempts to persuade him into going through with this were all in vain. We quickly made last minute plans with somebody else who was willing to sing, but his voice did not match the tone of the song, so we were forced to change songs about a week before the talent show. It was a simple song and everybody quickly learned how to play it and the day before the talent show, we felt as if we were ready to perform.

The day of the talent show came around and we walked on stage with nervousness written over our faces. The performance started off well and the crowd was singing along and cheering for us, and as we neared the end of the song, it was time for my solo, my time to dazzle the crowd with my guitar. Engrossed in the rhythm of our song and the crowds chanting, I didn't realize that I was supposed to be playing. My band members kept playing as if nothing was wrong, but the lead singer was frantically signaling to me to start playing my solo. I realized what was happening and started playing. My solo didn't sound very good since it was both out of rhythm and out of tune since I kept playing the wrong notes. Fear took over and I realized that the crowd went silent and they all heard my horrible solo. I felt like crying on stage, but fortunately for me, I kept my emotions intact. I had failed and walked off the stage in shame along with the rest of my band. The rest of that day, I refused to talk about my performance with anyone, and kept my failure hidden from my family.

I had failed at what I thought I was good at, and after that incident, I did not touch my guitar for almost three months. It sat in my closet, gathering dust. I did not want to look at it since it reminded me about my embarrassment on stage in front of eight hundred people. I swore to myself that I would never play my guitar in front of another crowd again in fear that I would make a fool of myself again. Even though we weren't intending on winning the competition, I still felt as if I had let my team down and made us lose our shot at first place.

Looking back today, I've realized that whenever you plan for an event, whether formal or not, you should always start early since anything can happen. Furthermore, you should have a backup and always be prepared for the worst case scenario, no matter how unlikely it seems at the time. Today, I can play my guitar with confidence in front of my family or a small group of friends, but I don't think I'm going to get up on a stage in front of eight hundred people anytime soon. I rushed into it and I think that you should always take small steps before diving into the deep end of things. The most important lesson that I learned from this incident was to never succumb under pressure since it causes unnecessary stress and can have major consequences. I think the failure was worth it, because in the end, it really helped me to become a better person and learn a few new things.

Feedback/thoughts on how I could improve it would be greatly appreciated, thanks :)

hp, this is a very engaging and learning lesson to share with the admission officer. I admire you for being able to speak about such a public humiliation years after it happened. The lesson that you learned is quite applicable to almost everything that you will be doing and encountering during your college life. That said, we can work on improving the minimal grammar problems that your essay contains. I might make a few content suggestions here and there for your consideration as well. There are some portions of your essay that can be edited to make it shorter but concise so I will take the liberty of doing that for some of your paragraphs as well. Feel free to use any or all of my suggestions if you wish :-)


- During my 2nd year of high school, my friends and I decided to form a band and participate in the annual school talent show that is normally held midway in the academic year. We began rehearsing 2 weeks before the competition and began to develop our skills as a band over time. A week before the competition, our lead singer quit because he was not confident he could perform on stage. Even though we tried our best to persuade him not to quit, we eventually ended up with a different lead singer who unfortunately, did not know the first song we chose to perform. Quickly changing songs,we had only a few days to learn the song and build up our confidence about performing it in public.


- Though we were not totally confident about our skills, we walked onto the performance stage on the day of the talent show, nervousness written all over our faces. Just when we were about to pull off the full performance, I fumbled and dropped the ball. I missed the cue for my guitar solo because I was distracted by the warm reception of the audience. By the time I started playing it was too late. I was out of rhythm and out of tune. Needless to say, the audience went silent and was short of booing our performance. Knowing I had let my friends down, I felt like crying right there, in the middle of the stage. While everyone knew of my failure, I refused to talk to anyone about it. Shutting myself off from everyone else for the rest of the day.


- In hindsight, I would have to say that the experience could be chalked up to the "folly of youth" on my part. Whether I entered the competition along with my friends planning to win or not, I was overconfident in my skills as a performer and thought I was prepared for anything that would come my way onstage. Except, I forgot to make allowances for being a distracted first time performer. That, along with other lessons, taught me the value of preparation in building up self confidence. These day, I always start preparing early for anything I do. I make at least 3 contingency plans in case something might go wrong during the event, and I remind myself to focus and concentrate on what I should be doing regardless of what is going on around me. I no longer rush into situations without considering what might happen and what the consequences of my ill - timed actions might be. Most importantly, I learned that giving in to pressure will never result in any positive results In the end, the failure of my band resulted in my maturing as an individual. Learning to take responsibility for my actions, and preparing for possible scenarios were the most important take away lessons that I was given on the day that I embarrassed myself and lost the competition with my band.

Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it :)
I love what you did with the essay and I will definitely use it :)