I'm a failure - and I'm proud of it

I had someone tell me I'm perfect today. That scares me, as I am so not perfect! I try to show my flaws, pitfalls, failures and normalcy on social media, partly because it's abnormal to do so, and partly because I think it's important for people who are going through the same types of issues to know that there is a solution, or path through the difficulty.

So here's a list of some of my failures.

• I grow an awful moustache.

But I've come to appreciate that that means I'm not so hairy in other places, which I like.

• I failed Year 11 chemistry and physics in Semester 1. But that taught me that I wasn't going to get away with not studying anymore, that I would need to put some effort in to achieve decent grades.

• I trained and trained to break the school 400m freestyle record in Year 12. I missed out by about 3 seconds. I still made the school swimming team and went on to set a record at the interschool swimming carnival. This taught me that sometimes the training is more important than the event. That a single sporting event is the culmination of many months or years of effort, and sometimes those months of years and effort are more important than the final position or time in the race.

• I failed freshwater ecology and vertebrate zoology at University. I was given supplementary exams and I failed them too. I learnt that I wasn't going to be good at everything, and that some subjects were just too far removed from my interests or style of learning. As a result I didn't quite get the grade I needed for Honours, but one of the academics vouched for me and allowed me to work in his lab. I went on to do a PhD with that academic & published a scientific article with him.

• My first serious relationship failed. I learnt about heartbreak, but also about rebuilding myself and staying true to myself. I went on to find the love of my life and start a beautiful family together.

• I failed at being myself by allowing one part of my life to dominate all others. I failed to grow, and accepted that I was at the pinnacle of my life. This led to depression, and I had to learn a LOT about myself to get past this stage.

Perhaps you can see a pattern forming? Even though I have failed a number of times, I tried to learn something from the experience. But then I even failed at that! I've had to learn a number of lessons over and over again.

Probably the most important lesson I have learnt through all of my failures is to keep going. Analyse, reset, start again. Perhaps start on a new direction, but start again.

I hope this shows that I'm not perfect, I'm just a normal, flawed human being like everyone else.