Chronicles of the Ripper

My thoughts on Ideadibia’s “Failure” inspired this post.

Yes, Failure hurts, it sucks, it flogs one’s self-esteem, it brings up irrational feelings of shame.

It makes you wonder at those who forever glide through life under the constantly poofy cloud of Success. Those lucky people seemingly unscathed by Failure, perpetually basking in a lifetime of good fortune. They even appear to be quite amused with a World which they are convinced will never scratch them.

The laughable rhetorical questions that dance in your head, “Does God have favourites?” 😀

Seam ripper

Seam ripper | Source: Google images

Rather remarkably, Failure makes you more appreciative of Success. The gratitude from finally succeeding is so overwhelming,  I have cried with joy, moved by the power of my own emotions. The gush of release, an enormous wave of relief.

You become overprotective of  Success when it’s finally achieved, you want to stay drunk on that feeling of euphoria.  Most significantly, Failure forces one to test self-imposed boundaries and “Just do it”.  You step out of your comfort zone and take chances.

I’ll admit that I’m sometimes torn between the Shield of Aloofness (“You cannot really fail if you never expected to get something“- Chuma) and the Power of Faith.  Perhaps one must learn the fine art of balancing both mantras.

Personally, I have learned that Fear sometimes precedes Failure.  As a child, I was rather frightened of Math, as the grasp of algebra eluded me.  I just couldn’t figure it out.

So, I failed Math, and it set me back a year after secondary school.  I was ashamed of my failure, I’d excelled in every other subject but my numerical albatross.

I hated my shame, and when I decided that I was tired of being ashamed, I digested every Math textbook that I could lay my hands on.  This time around, it was surprisingly easy to understand, equations and formulas flowed into my head, like bees to honey.

I retook the exam and my grade in Math was BRILLIANT, I “over-passed”.  I cried and laughed from relief.  It established my strong belief in both the turnaround power and rewards of Determination.

My mastery of numbers fuelled my success at University, I found that I could reason more logically, and I was fiercely protective of my sweet success.  Even till this day, I play with numbers in my head, just because!  I trust the consistency of numbers, “they” do not lie.

It is quite needless to be over-analytical about ‘2 x 2’, it will always be equal to 4.   The fact that the sum of the individual digits of ALL the multiples of nine will ALWAYS be equal to either nine or another multiple of nine, whose individual digits also sum up to nine (which really amuses and fascinates me), cannot be contested 😀 .

Keepcalmpink

Source: Google images

Well,  I love my seam ripper, it gives me the power to undo my sewing failures, it lets me know I can try again and give it my best shot the next time.  It also lets me know that failure isn’t always final, that the winds of fortune can change. I simply use it to unravel the seams and restitch.

Jason Njoku put it very aptly: “Failing all the way to success”, when telling his success story.

Failure isn’t always permanent 🙂

Sign

 

 

PS: I saw “Single in Gidi“, the stage play, at Terra Kulture this afternoon, it was a brilliant success!!!

 

~About me~

 

22 comments

  1. Nedu, I loved this post. Now lets talk Maths, I wish I’d known you decades ago when my hate hate r/ship began with Maths fueled by dad’s love for it and his inability to pass that emotion to me. You are so lucky that you overcame it, you know when I finished my GCSEs, I told my dad with glee that i was going to burn all my books. You know what he said, ‘Biki, you cant run away from maths’ I poopoo’d him at the time. But he was right, in my law degree in walked Maths in the shape of tax and accounts as a stylist I had to do invoices, and now when the banks send me letters about interest rate etc, lil’ birdies begin to swarm round my head….i fed my fears, i hated numbers and now look at me (said in a wailing voice with hands thrown up to the sky). Ok, rant over, have a good Sat hon! (:

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    1. Hello Biki,

      Thank you so much for reading this.

      @ “in a wailing voice with hands thrown up to the sky” XD . Indeed, you can not run away from Maths.

      Ah! If only the love for Maths were hereditary, I’d specifically marry a Maths genius for the sake of my unborn children. Lol

      Back then, on the morning before a test, I used to get so sick from fright, I am thankful I overcame my fear.

      I trust your weekend went well, have a great week!

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  3. There is such a thing as a seam ripper? Where the heck have I been? I use my hands!
    Now that I have appropriately self- recriminated (if there is such a thing), I have to agree with everything. Especially the failure makes you appreciate success part. And with your whole devouring the math textbooks and it’s family members such that you can now understand equations, I do that too. Sometimes anyway. P. S- I miss Terra Kulture

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    1. “Self-recriminated” made me chuckle. Yes, there is. I was ecstatic when I discovered the small but mighty sewing tool. It’s very affordable too- One Hundred Naira only- and comes in pretty colours.

      Lol @ “…family members”. Indeed, failure makes you appreciate success more.

      Stage plays are one of my favourite things 🙂

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  4. In my first year, I studied hard for Chemistry. So hard did I read that I didn’t notice the last 25 objective questions at the back page. I cried and cried – big baby. When I realised that God, my Father, permitted it to be so, I felt at peace. Results out, I got a ‘C’, even better than many coursemates.

    So hard was the course, or maybe the rumours about it helped to harden it in our thoughts and shaped our outlook to it. My outlook, yours also, changes in some way the failure or success. I like this one ‘Failure is only a postponed success’. ‘How dare you think you have failed’ on my blog says more.

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  6. Hello nedu. thanks for checking up my blog. tropicalscissors.blogspot.com. it has been a while though since I posted something in it.

    Failure isnt a cool feeling at all. But at some pt in our lives, we thank God for failing in one thing or the other cos it made us stronger to face better things and even made us better at what we had failed previously on.

    We just have to rip somethings in our lives to begin afresh in a better way.

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    1. Dear Nkem,

      You are most welcome, I enjoyed reading about your DIY sewing projects.

      I love your fresh perspective of this post. – “We just have to rip some things in our lives to begin afresh in a better way”.

      Hmmm, I totally agree with you. We must rip off the anchors weighing us down and sail freely towards our dreams.

      Thank you so much for visiting 😀

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  7. I enjoyed Jason Njoku’s TED Talk. I also enjoyed your story about mathematics… I felt the shame when you failed. But you proved that failure doesn’t have to be the final story.

    I’m not into sewing, but perhaps we all need to find a version of the seam ripper for different areas of our lives.

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    1. Dear Timi,

      I sincerely appreciate your visits. Comments like yours enrich my blogging experience and make it so worthwhile.

      Indeed, we must find a seam ripper-like talisman to remind us once in while that “We can!” (Hello Obama) 😀

      Last year, I had the fortune of meeting Jason Njoku, his drive is very impressive.

      Thank you so much. Have a super day!

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    1. Lol, Me neither, I have several too 😀

      When I first started sewing, I had only one and hated having to search frantically whenever it went missing.

      Thank you so much for stopping by.

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    1. Hello Chuma,

      Lol, thank you for the inspiration 🙂

      A friend of mine suggested that I personalize this post to tell my own story, and I did.

      Have a lovely week.

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    1. Hello Priye,

      Lol, I still wonder how I managed to do that. It wasn’t even the plan when I started typing, but as I went along, the idea took shape 🙂

      Thanks for stopping by.

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