Love to Fail

I’m a competitive person. But as much as I want to succeed and win, I’ve found some of my most fun experiences have been failures. I’ve learned to enjoy failing and appreciate the lessons it provides.

Senior year of high school, I had to write a college essay about a piece of literature that challenged or resonated with me. I wanted to stand out in the application process, so I wrote about a song from my favorite artist, Lil Wayne. It was a well written song about his impoverished community in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, but my essay didn’t get me into the college.

This was the only time I ever had fun writing an essay. I got to dive deep into a meaningful song from my favorite artist and it didn’t even feel like work. The lesson I took from the experience was to know my audience when creating something; college admissions officers probably weren’t too interested in Lil Wayne’s songwriting ability. At the time, I was bummed I didn’t get into the school, but looking back it was still a valuable experience because I had fun and learned something that stuck with me. And I’m very happy with the college I ended up at.

Failure is necessary for creativity because it’s how we learn and improve. Loving to fail is how I have become comfortable taking risks to increase the quality of my creative output.

By: Ryan Gallmann

Year: Sophomore

Major: Entrepreneurship

Hometown: Wilmington, Delaware

Fun Fact: Another one of my best failures is getting fired from a cafe for accidentally breaking a shift's worth of dirty dishes