As the end of the school year nears, I realize how much is about to change in the next few months. My eldest will be leaving her beloved Kindergarten and will enter a new “big school” (as we call it) as she enters the first grade. Meanwhile, my youngest, my erstwhile baby, will be spreading her own wings as she enters pre-Kindergarten and her first experience with “outside school” (again, as we call it), after having been homeschooled for the past few months by her mom. These are their first steps into the bigger world beyond Daddy-Mommy-Home. They have so much to learn, so many people to meet, and so many experiences to go through. I am excited for them, but at the same time, I can’t help be a little anxious as they take their first steps out of my embrace.
As parents, we would like nothing more than to hold our children close forever, to protect them from any and all potential danger, to shield them from anything that could break their hearts. But at the same time, we know that they will face challenges, experience heartaches, and will be devestated by failure. Not only will they go through all these, we know that they have to go through them. The human experience would not be complete if it were all sunshine and rainbows. The human experience demands that we suffer some if only to teach us to savor to the fullest the joys that come with living.
As a Dad, my number one job is to love, care for, provide for, and teach my children so that they become loving, responsible, well-adjusted adults. And one topic that I can teach them about, from experience, is failure. I can teach them that failure is not something to be feared, but something to be embraced. Failure is not something to avoid at all costs, but something to go through and learn from. Failure is not something to be ashamed of as if it represents that you are not “good enough”, but it is something that tells the world that you are not afraid of dreaming big and going after those dreams. And most importantly, I will teach them that no matter how many times they may fail, I will be right there beside them.
“Failure is not an option” – a phrase uttered by countless heroes in movies, and a phrase that should stay on screen. In real life failure is not only an option, but a necessity. He who has not failed has not truly lived.