“The Slingshot”

“Oh no! I’m done”. These words escaped my mouth while my whole body was in shock
when I saw my unexpected failed score on most of my subjecsts. These, however, aren't
actually considered failures; rather, they fell short of my own and everyone else's
expectations.

Obviously, I didn’t sleep well that night and the following days. I also couldn’t focus
on our discussion because my head was busy thinking about how I failed miserably. And
what do you expect? This actions didn’t do any good to me.

After realizing things, I tried opening up and asking for some advice from my lola
and my friends to ease the burden of overthinking. They just said the same thing, "Don’t
overthink that much, it won’t help you. Instead, use it as an inspiration for you to do your
very best the next time and prove to everyone what you can really do. "

And so I did what they told me to do. I stopped thinking about my failure because I
realized that it wouldn’t change a thing. And what I can do is to focus on my present
situation and do my best to have a better—no, the best score next time.

          I used that experience as an inspiration to study more. I marked on my mind, "Do
you want to be in that situation again?" And so I did everything that I could do. I poured
all of my disappointment out so that I would have the courage and energy to thrive more.
Since I knew the feeling of having a low score, it just strengthened my determination to
aim for higher grades.

And because of this, I saw really good results. And I am more than happy that,
aside from overcoming my past failures, I also exceeded my expectations towards myself.

But more importantly, I remember that I am doing all these things not to impress others,
but to satisfy myself and to upgrade myself to the best version. Because I realized that I
wouldn’t be able to improve myself if I kept on thinking about others' words more than
mine.

          Because just like a slingshot, the farther the elastic band is stretched, the more
potential energy is stored.