Failing Forward - and Never Looking Back

by Cathy Rosell
(Santa Monica, California)

Hi! I'm Cathy and a junior college student here in California. I love your site and I thought I'd share a recent experience.

My professor gave my group a classic novel to be adapted into a school play and I was assigned to lead the scripting.

People have said that I am a pretty good writer but the real problem is; I lacked the confidence to discuss my visions in a more elaborate, vivid way with others, including my professor.

People in the play kept on asking me to explain what I meant about 'this and about that' and every time I tried to answer, I felt like my tongue was twisted in a knot.

It wasn't that I didn't know what I'd written, it's just that I tended to freeze when I knew everyone was listening to me.

This has really been a problem over the past few years.

The good news is that my professor was so kind and understanding, she helped me wriggle my way out the confusion, and I am now feeling better about expressing myself to the group.

The end result has been that I do feel my vision for the script has been put into words and came out nicely as enacted by the various players.

I'm actually proud to say that I believe the play went on and it was a success. My classmates and teacher were all pleased by the outcome.

Ya know, I suddenly realized that we should NEVER be afraid of failing, because it’s just natural that we should fail - especially early on in our early experiences.

We’re just humans and if we do fail, so what?

There’s always a chance to correct it, right?

I’m just so happy because now that I'm a bit more confident in putting myself out there, even though I know I may fall on my face, I know I'm learning, and getting better, every step of the way.

Who knows, maybe next year I will be assigned for a bigger play, something like Romeo and Juliet!

By the way, thanks for this page, just taking a minute to write out my thoughts, helped me come to the above conclusion.

I hope some other 'scare-dy-cat' will see this and it will, in some way, encourage them to "go for it!" - regardless of what might happen.

Thanks for listening.