My Best FailureStory in 2013

Dr. Zamzam Torabi

I graduated as a pharmacist in June 2013. One month before the graduation ceremony, I got an email from the student secretariat regarding to the details of the event. I was supposed to be happy but it made me concerned:

The Story

" Would all the hard days of studying, difficulties of living abroad and separation from family and friends be over by this ceremony ? How will it end? Only by a handshake and throwing the robe hats away? Is that all ? ”

I wanted something more...

I didn't know why but I had the feeling that a simple end was not enough for me. In fact, it was neither a pay off for all the difficult years I had, nor an appropriate compensation for my parents who suffered the separation only to see me that day.

The day after, I got another email from the secretariat. They had opened the applications for student speaker candidates, who can represent international pharmaceutical students in the graduation ceremony !

“ The complete applications has to be submitted in a week and the dean would select the final candidate.”

THAT WAS IT !

I decided to send the application and try my chance to finish this ceremony in a way I want to.

One week later I got another email; my application was accepted. I was going to be the representative of international students in the ceremony !

The only question jumping to my mind was: What have I done??!!

The fear of speaking in front of hundreds of educated people had already gripped me.

Although I was a good speaker, having many experiences to speak for small to medium groups, this was my first time to give a speech for hundreds of highly educated individuals.

Couple of days passed with a panic resulting from an uncontrolled fear. But I should have completed what I had stared. I needed to act like a professional so I begun reading essays on how to handle a speech, watching lots of talks belonging to great people, having their styles under a magnifier and trying to mimic them.

The challenge was already

started…

Opera Winfrey, Steve Jobs, Barak Obama, Martin Luther King, ...

On the Ceremony… Every body was happy. I was happy, anxious, stressful and curious. My friends blamed me for making the last day, a stressful day for myself but I needed to do this.

After two weeks of practice, Finally I was ready to give a good speech. My only thought was to be brave, not to afraid, to give a perfect speech and not to fall on heels

My name was announced, I went up there and the only thing I remember is that after a couple of seconds, I felt strong.

But every thing didn’t go well …

The hall lighting made me almost blind. I could see no one in the front so I kept my head down during the speech like an amateur speaker. Also the position of the microphone was such a way that my voice could be hardly heard.

I was so stressed out and concentrated on not to make a mistake during the speech that I completely forgot to set the microphone before starting to speak and ask the helpers to turn one of the interfering projectors of.

In contrast to all my efforts and the nice and professional text I had prepared, it didn’t become an acceptable presentation.

"So my friends let's go in the direction of our dreams, live the life that we have always imagined. May all of our lives exceed even our wildest imaginations..... Thank you. ” These were the last words I said.

That day was not a pay off for me but it was a pay off for the all the fears I had.

In contrast to the positive reactions I got from the audience during and after the speech, for a long time I was thinking that maybe I shouldn't have even applied, I was not the right person, why did I forget about the microphone, it was a true failure, etc.

But now by watching the speech record again and again, I am feeling happy and proud of being selected by dean of the faculty and giving a speech for a large public of scholars, students and the university staff for the first time, although it wasn't perfect and mistake-less.

Without any exaggerations, this speech actually altered the course of my life. It didn't saturated my thirst but it made it deeper. It made me starve to learn more, improve the weaknesses and strengthen my leadership spirit.

Now, more than any time, I understand that some times we have to fight against fears by knowing that actions do not need to be always perfect. Fear of judgments can be reduced if we understand that by making a different step, we are already adored by most of the people that making mistakes will not change their mind.

Thank you for reading my short story

In contrast to the positive reactions I got from the audience during and after the speech, for a long time I was thinking that maybe I shouldn't have even applied, I was not the right person, why did I forget about the microphone, it was a true failure, etc.But now by watching the speech record again and again, I am feeling happy and proud of being selected by the dean of the faculty and giving a speech for a large public of scholars, students and the university staff for the first time, although it wasn't perfect and mistake-less. I haven't failed, I have succeeded.

Without any exaggerations, this speech actually altered the course of my life. It didn't saturated my thirst but it made it deeper. It made me starve to learn more, improve the weaknesses and strengthen my leadership spirit. Now more than any time, I understand that some times we have to fight against fears by knowing that actions do not need to always be perfect. Fear of judgments can be reduced if we understand that by making a different step we are already adored by most of the people that presence of couple of errors will not change it a lot.

Thank you

for reading

my short

story