Learning to fail forward is part of the university experience — and fear doesn’t get to drive.

Failure and rejection are so common in university life that we might as well add them to our course syllabi. Everyone is terrified of it, even those that seem confident about the course. This fear is not just normal — it is baked into the university experience like overpriced instant noodles and group projects where you do 90% of the work.

While fear might be normal, letting it run the show is like handing your future over to a sleep-deprived duck – which doesn’t tend to end well. Conquering your fear of failure and rejection does not mean never feeling scared. It means getting scared, maybe even panicking a little, but still doing the thing.

There is no need to pretend fear is some powerful dragon we must slay. Fear is more like a loud roommate who watches reality TV at 2 a.m. — annoying, persistent, but mostly just background noise. The moment you treat it like something mythical and all-powerful, you give it the keys to your life. Fear is a terrible driver, but you need to push through it. You rarely feel ready, but you often find out you were more prepared than you thought.

What helped me was seeing rejection as redirection, which allowed me to take immense pressure off tasks I needed to accomplish. Failure does not mean you are not good enough. It means you tried something that stretched you. It means you reached and took a risk that most people were too scared to take. Rejection is a sign of participation in life. If you never get rejected, it means you are hiding. It means you have built your little safety zone and refuse to wander outside it.

Your fear of failure might secretly be a fear of being seen. If you do not try, no one can see you fail. No one can judge or make a nasty back-handed comment. However, that means no one can see you win either. You cannot be recognized for the ideas you never share, the questions you never ask or the passions you never pursue. Staying hidden might feel safe, but it is also incredibly lonely.

Perfectionism is fear in a graduation robe. It wears achievement like armor and tells you that if you just do everything right, you will never feel the sting of rejection. Perfectionism is a liar, convincing you that unless your paper is flawless, it is not worth submitting. That unless you are the best in your class, you might as well not speak up.

Life is not a video game with cheat codes. You don’t level up by waiting until you are ready, but by trying, failing, learning and trying again. You level up by writing the awkward email, speaking up in class, auditioning even when your voice shakes or applying for the thing even when you are 60% sure you will be ignored.

Most of the coolest, successful, genuinely interesting people you will meet have been rejected more times than they can count. They have flunked, face-planted, had internships go sideways and graduate schools say no. Yet, they kept showing up and did not let rejection and failure define them. They let it refine them.

Rejection and failure hurts and it is okay to take time to be upset about it. Go cry if you need to or scream into your pillow, maybe even eat some pity ice cream. After that, get up and brainstorm what the next step is. Let the scar be your armor.

University is the one place where failure is not only inevitable, but valuable. You are supposed to fumble and be wrong sometimes. You’re here to experiment, to ask weird questions, to stretch your brain so far it cracks and heals stronger. That is the whole point of this experience.

If you fear failing a class, of submitting the application, of sharing your art, of raising your hand — do it scared. Let fear sit in the backseat, but do not let it touch the wheel.

At the end of the day, there will inevitably be moments when things do not go as planned. You will fail at something you cared about, and there will be times when you are met with rejection — whether it is from a job, a person, an opportunity or a goal you worked hard to reach. These experiences can feel crushing in the moment, shaking your confidence and making you question your value. 

It is important to remember that failure and rejection are not reflections of your worth; they are simply part of being human. You will survive them. The world will not stop spinning just because something did not go your way. Life will move forward, and so will you. These setbacks do not define you, and they certainly do not diminish your worth or your potential. Often, these moments teach us more about resilience, strength and self-awareness than our successes ever could. They remind us that we are still here, still capable and still growing. 

When you find yourself in a moment of disappointment, try to breathe through it. Let yourself feel it, but do not let it convince you that you are any less. You are still worthy, still enough and still on your way.