{"id":82,"date":"2017-03-29T00:44:08","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T00:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/?p=82"},"modified":"2018-08-15T23:52:29","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T23:52:29","slug":"failures-in-a-bottle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/2017\/03\/29\/failures-in-a-bottle\/","title":{"rendered":"FAILURES IN A BOTTLE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Brodsky, ’18,<\/strong> Peabody College, Student VUceptor<\/p>\n

At times, it seems the problem on our campus is that everyone is just too talented. There is someone here who is better than you at everything, and without any effort at all. They\u2019re double majoring in chemical and biomedical engineering, studying abroad, and feeding 2,000 starving children at a food bank in Tanzania.<\/p>\n

The even greater problem on our campus, though, is that we don\u2019t want anyone to see us struggle. What do we do, if we don\u2019t put our failures out in the open for others to identify with? We bottle them up, giving them agency to grow and devour our sanity. We bottle them up to evade weakness, afraid it will scare off the friends we work so desperately to hold on to. And the price is isolation, insecurity, and depression of our fellow students and ourselves. I challenge you to uncork that bottle and let your story pour out. Here, I\u2019ll go first.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a junior, double majoring in HOD and communication studies. Of course, I don\u2019t want to admit that I\u2019ve actually changed majors 17 times, twice entertained the idea of dropping out (once to be a florist, the other to be a New York cabbie), and had four mental breakdowns because I have no idea what I\u2019m doing with my life.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been to several appointments at the Psychological and Counseling Center. I\u2019ve also cried for ten minutes straight while looking at their website to make an appointment and convinced myself that there was something wrong with me, because I knew no one else who went there.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cWhat
\u201cWhat do we do, if we don\u2019t put our failures out in the open for others to identify with? We bottle them up, giving them agency to grow and devour our sanity.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was in the alternate pool to be an RA, applied to be on Honor Council but didn\u2019t get an interview, and was rejected from \u2018Dore for a Day and tour guides. I barely made a C in Chem 102 my fall semester and withdrew from Math 150 because, apparently, I\u2019m not nearly as good at those subjects as high school had led me to believe. But, I still have to constantly placate myself, because I\u2019m still awesome and proud of what I\u2019ve experienced…and everyone I know goes through those exact same struggles.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s me.<\/p>\n

Now swallow your pride, step out from behind your facade of felicity, and expose the insecurities and doubts and worries that keep you up at night. Don\u2019t let these so-called failures and deficiencies tear you down in silent solitude. It will be a comfort to many to know that they aren\u2019t facing these issues alone. We will all be better for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Brodsky, ’18, Peabody College, Student VUceptor At times, it seems the problem on our campus is that everyone is just too talented. There is someone here who is better than you at everything, and without any effort at all. They\u2019re double majoring in chemical and biomedical engineering, studying abroad, and feeding 2,000 starving children…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,21],"tags":[32,17,14,27],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-wellbeing","category-self-discovery","tag-mvov17","tag-peabody-college","tag-vu2020","tag-vu2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions\/208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}