Assignment 26. Celebrating Failure

This semester I started interning with the Marketing department for the UAA. Of course like any other new intern I was terrified I was going to mess up and I wanted to make sure I did a good job. Well in fact my first game didn't go as planned it went horribly (for me at least). I was in charge of finding a person for a dizzy bat competition at a volleyball game, that part went extremely well. I found a student who was extremely energetic and was excited to be on the court for a competition, that went great but the execution not so great. We got down on the court and I didn't have a headset because we ran out (which would've helped me tremendously but that's okay) so I immediately send him on the court to start doing the dizzy bat competition, he had to spin around 30 times then find a big Moe's burrito in the crowd. I sent him out too early so the competition didn't count, I was supposed to wait for a cue and then send him out, so since I sent him out too early it didn't count so he had to complete the competition twice. I missed such a simple thing yet it was such a big deal. Now if I had a headset my manager could've told me to have him stop but I had no way of getting in touch with them. After all the cameras we're ready the announcer started and the guy did the competition again but only spin around 10 times so it was a little easier for him and he was a great sport. I was so excited to be in the moment, I didn't let my common sense kick in and say "Jaycie wait for someone to cue you and the announcer will do the rest and let him know when to start."
I was so embarrassed after I completely failed that promotion, it ended up okay but it could've went better. I have learned to just think things through take a breath and make sure you understand everything that is going on in the promotion and how to execute it correctly. Things happen and it was my first game but I never want to feel like that again so I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure it doesn't happen again. I do believe it has helped to take read the task sheet better and understand what the promotion is and how to execute it correctly. After that incident, I told myself I would do better and I wasn't going to let that hold me back and I ended up getting asked to be a team leader for the UF Women's Soccer team and the UF Softball team, so who knows maybe the failure is what lit the spark in me to do better!
Failure is hard, and the feeling is horrible. When I first applied to UF I didn't get all my paperwork in on time so I had to wait an entire semester to see if I was accepted to my college. Those first couple days I felt awful, I felt like I failed myself and everyone in my life that was rooting for me, but I learned that it wasn't the end of the world. I ended up taking the semester off, working a lot and that money went towards my tuition at UF so everything does happen for a reason. This class has taught me to take risks and it is okay to fail, you will fail more than you succeed but when you do succeed it makes all the failures worth it. I am extremely glad I took this class because I do believe I will take more risks now and it will be okay when I fail. I will get back up and I will try again!