Working, reaching, climbing up that ladder, breathing heavily when I reach the top but not the end. I am almost there because I can see the last space, the end of the game where I win. Without looking, I take one more step forward, and down, down, down I fall, all the way back to the bottom. I believe in Chutes and Ladders.
Just like in the game Chutes and Ladders, life has ladders as well as chutes. Throughout life, ladders can elevate people up and chutes can humbly send them right back down. Even though the ladders symbolize the accomplishments in life, the chutes are the most important part of the game. The chutes represent failures, and I believe that failure is the key to life. Failure reminds me that life is not a long ladder but a combination of both small ladders and long chutes. Once I fail, this gives me the adrenaline rush to find that ladder that takes me even closer to my goal than the one I last climbed.
Life is not a one-way ladder taking me straight to happiness and success. Instead, life is peppered with both some success and mountains of failure. Therefore, success is not expected but failure is inevitable. Failure is nature’s natural process of suppressing egos and humbling humans. Not everyone succeeds, but everyone fails. Recently, after making tapioca pudding, I realized something was terribly wrong. The tapioca pearls seemed hard and rubbery while they sunk to the bottom of a soupy mess. I had put two times the amount of milk needed. Fail. My Dad laughed at my mistake, ate the pudding, and joked about my pudding making skills on my next attempt. When I finally made the pudding correctly all I could remember was the first time I made it. All people fall short of perfect, and little failures make life interesting.
Also, failure is the spark of inspiration that ignites success. Multiple failures can lead to frustration but also to the growth of knowledge. Everyone is failing his or her way to success. Thomas Edison, after failing 1,000 times at making the light bulb, allegedly said, “I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb.” He exuded a non-defeatist attitude, and his failure was a tool for his learning. Nothing comes out prefect the first time; if it did then life would prove uneventful. Life would have nothing to look forward to or the excitement of achieving a goal. Human fallibility causes these imperfections, and all can learn from their mistakes and with little fixes the next few times will result in perfection. Pure success springs from determination and hard work. So, climb those ladders with the incentive that one day the chutes will not wreak havoc and a task will become completed.