I believe that pain is one of life’s greatest motivators. I am a varsity student who recently realised that the road to success is through commitment and it is often in failure, when we find the most power.

Last year during my first semester, I did not have clear goals about my future. I was at varsity just because I had good marks and I qualified to study towards a degree. Not to forget that I was at varsity because nowadays it is a societal norm if you want to be successful.

Although I never felt perfect about myself, I never had that courage that most students at varsity had. As a result, I failed my first test. I knew that it was supposed to be a game changer to me because I felt so much pain during that moment I even thought that I was a failure in life. However, that did not change much on my perspective toward being a university student. I would just stay in my room and not attend any classes but I would still read my books despite not going to class.

Exam time came, I was not nervous or stressed about exams and it was the first time feeling like this towards examinations. I am that type of a person who panics a lot when exam period comes.

However, I knew that I wrote those exams without putting my greatest effort in them, though in my heart I was expecting good results. I waited for the results and it turned out that I did not do as much as I was expecting. By that time I held my academic records in my hands, and not seeing what I wanted to see, that was the time where I was really motivated by my failure.

Then the quote by Mohit came to my mind: “It is hard to put the effort to create greatness, but it is a lot harder to accept the reality that you could have been great.”

I believe in myself, that I can achieve whatever I put my mind to and that I cannot change what I failed but I can change my failure. Life does give us second chances and it is our choice to grab the opportunity with both hands and create greatness or let the opportunity slide. I realised that in the real world nothing comes easy. I have to put in the effort, tears and sweat.

I entered into second semester of my studies with great motivation and dedication. I attended every class and I started to love and enjoy what I was studying.

The end of the year came and through hard work and dedication, I obtained two distinctions on my studies and passed other modules with 70+ and 60+. That was my “aha” moment. I realized that nothing beats hard work. You need to be committed to your work, look like a fool if you have to, but you will get what you want at the end of the day.

In summary, everyone has their own story to tell about their lives and dreams they had, and ways in which they took to achieve those dreams. They will tell you how they studied while their mates were parting and how many sleepless nights they had. I believe that sometimes it takes a good fall to stand up. One day I want to when I see my academics, I see God’s doing and hard work for God helps those who help themselves and this is my story.

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