One of the biggest lies I used to tell people was that my worst fear was arachnophobia–fear of spiders. It’s not a completely false statement; after all, I cried in seventh grade when my best friend dangled a plastic spider in front of my face during Mr. Shipp’s science class (thanks, Haley). 

But spiders weren’t my worst fear. I was afraid of failure, more so than I was afraid of spiders.

I was afraid of failure until I started failing often in one sphere of my life: DECA. My research paper didn’t go to state my sophomore year, I lost three elections, the list goes on. I’ve failed made mistakes over and over again as a DECA student, officer, and competitor. 

Every decision I make, I risk making another mistake and failing once again. 

But the difference is that now, I don’t think about all the reasons why I could be wrong. There’s always a good chance that I might be, but it’s okay, because every failure teaches me something that success wouldn’t have. 

Thank you, to G and DECA, for teaching me early on that failure is not the end of the road, and that sometimes, my best is not enough. These are the lessons of the real world, learned in the safe environment of the DECA room, so that the failures in my future will hurt me less. 

Thank you for making a hard, but necessary, truth easier to learn. 

Unfortunately, I’m still afraid of spiders.