"Where You Stumble is Where Your Treasure Lies" - Joseph Campbell

When judging someone’s success, many will look for that person’s triumphs, victories and accomplishments. However, it is equally important to look at that person’s failures and how they were able to overcome them. This fact is evident to me as a figure skater, as I am able to see how much I have learned from both my failures and triumphs. Furthermore, many of the victories that I have been able to achieve would not have been possible if not for the defeats that I have endured and learned from. Perhaps the time of my life that most exemplifies the way I was able to grow from my failures was during the 2014-2015 season.

I was only 11 years old and had just started to compete seriously in this sport. Despite my affection for figure skating, I absolutely could not stand the thought of competition. A mere mention of the possibility for competition would warrant my resentment. My hateful sentiment for competition was brought upon due to the juxtaposition in how I would perform during practice and how I would in front of a crowd and a panel of judges. It always seemed that no matter how well I would do during practice, it would always prove to be of no prevail. As soon as my music would start in competition, it seemed as though I would go through a transformation, to a state where I suddenly had just put a pair of skates on for the first time.

It was incredibly frustrating to know that I was capable of so much more than I was able to show to everyone in competition. This feeling was perhaps the worst during the beginning of the 2014 season, where even though I was doing great in practice, I competed worse than ever before. The devastation brought from each competition after the next was mentally exhausting. Looking back now, a poor performance does not seem nearly as important as I made it out to be, especially in the local competitions that I was performing in at the time. However, each defeat after another was completely unbearable, and I was honestly ready to quit near the end of that season.

Even with mediocre performances though, I was able to barely qualify for my first national competition in January of 2015. Notwithstanding, it was incredibly distressing to know that I was, for the first time in my life, competing a national level. The notion of competing at a level this high and making a fool of myself was almost too much to bear. In addition, I also was suffering from an injury that I had acquired a few weeks before. As a result, before the competition I was not able to train at the same frequency as I had normally been. However, something in me changed during that competition. The presence and high stakes that I was facing did not discourage me, but instead empowered me. It was at that moment that I stepped onto the ice to skate that the idea of competition completely changed for me. For the first time in my career I was actually enjoying my time out on the ice in front of everybody, and the confidence in my skating showed it. I ended up receiving third after one of the best performances I had ever given up to that point.

This skate was not only a turning point in my career, it was a symbolic representation that everything that I had worked up towards was finally paying off. My performance at nationals in 2015 gave me the confidence I needed to receive three more national medals in the next few years. However, without the defeats and losses, I would never have been taught the resiliency and grit that I possess today. Furthermore, the agony that I endured through during my defeats makes my triumphs much more meaningful and rewarding. All in all, even though it caused me an incredible amount of anguish and despair at the time, I am thankful for each and every defeat that I have endured, as it is what lead me to be the person I am today.