{"id":29338,"date":"2016-10-14T12:45:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T16:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=29338"},"modified":"2016-11-21T19:26:08","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T00:26:08","slug":"finding-your-way-back-after-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2016\/10\/14\/finding-your-way-back-after-failures\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Your Way Back After “Failures”"},"content":{"rendered":"Even though everyone experiences failure, nobody wants to broadcast them. And it\u2019s definitely hard to talk about them at a competitive school such as U of T. When you\u2019ve experienced academic setbacks at a high-achieving school it\u2019s hard to convince yourself that you can bounce back from it. At least that was the case for me. I saw the \u2018failures\u2019 as now-permanent features of my character and less like \u2018stumbles\u2019 or \u2018setbacks\u2019 (which, in the grand scheme of things, they actually were).\r\n\r\nSo what's important when you're trying to bounce back from setbacks?\r\n\r\n
\"Robarts<\/a>
Coming back from setbacks can all be rather intimidating, just like Robarts.
(c) University of Toronto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nUnderstand\u00a0that the playing field is never even.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThere is a very high standard that\u2019s set here at U of T and it\u2019s very hard not to compare yourself to others. What you usually fail to acknowledge when you do this is the fact that everyone comes to university with their own baggage and their own advantages\/disadvantages. The common example that everyone uses to illustrate this point is if you\u2019re learning how to program for the first time and you compare your less-than-stellar first assignment mark to someone who\u2019s been programming since they were a kid, most people would expect that other person to get the higher grade.\r\n\r\nMaybe you\u2019re a caregiver or have other family responsibilities. Maybe you\u2019re working three-part time jobs and are also commuting 2 hours each way. Maybe you have physical or mental disabilities. It can be tough to manage other responsibilities or burdens along with your schoolwork.\r\n\r\nSometimes it\u2019s hard to even acknowledge your own \u2018disadvantages\u2019 since you\u2019ve been living with them for so long. I find that being able to talk with others makes it easier to realize that we all struggle sometimes. Drop-in organized discussion groups, like the Sexual & Gender Diversity Office\u2019s Q21 series<\/a> or Campaign4Community\u2019s Coffeehouses<\/a>, can be great.\r\n\r\nIf you have more specialized needs, there's probably a division\/group\/club\/organization on campus that can help you out. Things like the Family Care Office's discussion groups<\/a>\u00a0or the Grief Support Circles<\/a> might be helpful for connecting with those in similar situations to what you're going through. If you're struggling with mental health, you might try asking a doctor at Health & Wellness about CBT groups<\/a>. Definitely ask your registrar about campus resources, but\u00a0also keep an eye (or ear) out when interacting with other students and members of the community as they might also be able to direct you to events or groups hosted by clubs and societies that may not be as widely known.\r\n\r\nSo I suppose, what I'm saying is, It\u2019s hard to regain your confidence after setbacks, whether they're academic or not.\u00a0I\u2019m tripped over enough streetcar tracks walking around Toronto that I\u2019m now somewhat paranoid every time I have to cross the street and walk over streetcar tracks. I\u2019m obnoxiously cautious about it and that\u2019s because, when you\u2019ve fallen enough times you start to think that\u2019s the norm. Coming back from academic \u2018failure\u2019 can be tough, especially if you\u2019ve never dealt with it on a significant scale before. I had started\u00a0to question my ability to succeed in doing anything<\/em> (much less school), but what definitely helped was for me to seek out and communicate with those with similar experiences.\r\n\r\nI've only mentioned a few examples of events and groups that might help, but I'd be curious to find out about all of the other resources that we have here on campus.\r\n\r\nWhat are some of the ways or some of the resources you've used to help you bounce back from academic setbacks?","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even though everyone experiences failure, nobody wants to broadcast them. And it\u2019s definitely hard to talk about them at a competitive school such as U of T. When you\u2019ve experienced academic setbacks at a high-achieving school it\u2019s hard to convince yourself that you can bounce back from it. At least that was the case for me. I saw the \u2018failures\u2019 as now-permanent features of my character and less like \u2018stumbles\u2019 or \u2018setbacks\u2019 (which, in the grand scheme of things, they actually were).\r\n\r\nSo what's important when you're trying to bounce back from setbacks?\r\n\r\n
\"Robarts<\/a>
Coming back from setbacks can all be rather intimidating, just like Robarts.
(c) University of Toronto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n
Continue reading “Finding Your Way Back After “Failures””<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":300,"featured_media":20281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,69],"tags":[542,153,24,88,10805,138,948,12277],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29338"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/300"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29338"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29613,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29338\/revisions\/29613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}