Uncomfortable moments promote growth

Last week, I majorly failed an exam. 

It was college algebra, so I honestly didn’t stress much about studying. I understood the homework, so I figured I’d be fine on the test. 

Wrong, apparently.

When I saw the failed grade, I was shocked, but not devastated. I don’t care much for math, and I wasn’t emotionally invested in the class. The problem is, now I actually have to work to bring my grade up in a subject I have no interest in.

I’m the kind of person who always needs to know “why.” If something feels pointless, I struggle to do it until someone explains its purpose. That habit showed up a lot in high school. Looking back, I know I could have done better, but I just didn’t care enough to try. 

In college, though, things feel different. The stakes are higher. If I fail something now, I can’t just float by with a C and move on. I have to put in the effort to recover, and that’s a humbling realization.

Failing that exam made me realize how much of adulthood is doing things we don’t really want to do. Sometimes it’s big things, like taking a class you don’t love because it’s required for your degree. Sometimes it is the smaller choices, like saying no to hanging out with friends so you can study or rest. It’s even in emotional work, like having a difficult conversation with someone you care about so the friendship can grow stronger.

None of it is fun at the moment. It’s uncomfortable, inconvenient and occasionally painful. But those moments, the ones we resist, are often the ones that teach us the most about ourselves. They stretch us, reveal what we are capable of and remind us that growth rarely happens in our comfort zone.

For me, this exam wasn’t just about math. It was about learning discipline, patience and humility. It was about showing up even when I’d rather not, about proving to myself that I can recover from a setback. 

Maybe I’ll never use algebra in my future career, but the skill of trying again after failing? That is something I’ll use every day.

Sometimes the lessons that matter most come wrapped in the things we like least. I didn’t expect to learn much from college algebra, but it turns out it’s teaching me something more valuable than formulas — how to keep going when I don’t want to.