My Biggest Failure… So Far
I’d like to tell you the story about how I failed academically, because it’s my largest personal failure (so far), and also because it led me to where I am today, in a UX bootcamp.
I did fairly well in college. Good enough to go to grad school. But, my undergrad degree was in anthropology, and my grad degree was in environmental science. When I was 27 years old, I decided that I wanted to be an engineer. I wanted to design more efficient systems such as wind turbines, solar arrangements, etc. After all, working in environmental consulting definitely has an engineering aspect to it. My day-to-day is very similar to my girlfriend’s, and she is a fully licensed engineer, the real deal. I discovered that many colleges will accept you into a graduate program if you take a bunch of pre-requisite courses in math and sciences. I was good at math in high school, but didn’t do much with it through college. What’s a coefficient, again?
I enrolled in my local community college and started knocking some classes out. It was challenging, because I have a real career in which I work a regular 40 hours a week, but I also travel about 150 days out of the year. I’m fortunate enough to work at a company that allows me to work from home and set my own schedule, so I went to my classes during the week and scheduled my travel around it.
At first, it wasn’t so bad. Brushing up on chemistry II and calculus? Easy. Going into calculus II and calculus-based physics? Uncharted territory for me, but not too bad. Taking calculus III, honors physics II, and differential equations? Big-time fail. Did I mention that I also work? I was beyond burnt out.
I passed the physics course, but received D’s in both calculus III and differential equations. To get into any of the engineering grad programs I was looking at, I’d have to take them again. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. That, combined with me being so burnt out on academia already, and knowing that since making over $70,000 a year, I would get zero financial aid (and we had just bought a house, so the aid would’ve been welcome!), I decided that I just wanted to work for a while, while I figured out my next step in life.
Long story short, my next steps eventually led me to the front door of a UX bootcamp, and I truly believe that this is where I was meant to be all-along.
My Assumptions
I had assumed that because I was good at math in high school, I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with it in college. Branching off of that, they were community college classes. I went to “real” universities. I assumed this meant they wouldn’t be that difficult. In reality, calculus III kicked my ass, and I’m still not entirely sure what a differential equation even is.
I had assumed that because I worked from home and set my own schedule, I’d have very few conflicts between work and school. The reality of that was that I often had days where I started working at 7am, and didn’t get home from class until 10:30pm, lay on my floor staring at my ceiling for a few minutes, then do homework until 12:30am while eating dinner. Repeat.
And that, is my greatest failure. I’m going to be extremely lucky and happy in life if it stays that way.
