By: Erica Murphy (Syracuse University)
Most normal people begin their college experience with a crazy drunken adventure, or a floor-wide game of catch phrase. That one event rekindles every year, making it almost like a tradition. People who met in freshman year make it a habit to reunite for another rousing game. Or someone might spot their first hook-up and somehow make the sparks fly again. I don’t know what makes these experiences resurface every year, but everyone knows that they do.
My recurring college moment does not involve a wild frat party or an innocent night with my friends. Instead, every year, I fail my first paper. But I don’t fail for my lack of writing ability. I fail for incorrectly citing a source in MLA format, or for misspelling a name. The worst part is that I knew I was going to fail for doing these horrid acts. Still my eye managed to miss the blatantly obvious mistakes. Luckily the huge F’s on my grade sheets did not deter me from my dream of writing for a magazine one day. But it did, however, become best buds with my professors.
Now why am I sharing these embarrassing details of my college career? I want readers to know that people fail. Especially for those new freshman that can’t bear to see anything but an A, it is ok to not get an A. I can also say that there is nothing like seeing a fat F to get the TV turned off an your fingers typing. I have never been more motivated in my life to work my words into perfection. But seriously, for someone who cringes at the sight of a “-1,” this year’s flop barely even fazed me. Maybe next year I won’t even notice; or maybe I will finally break my streak of failing.
