My RA with it's unpredictability and bad timing caused me many problems on my first clinical placement (part of my physiotherapy degree). This led me to be unsuccessful on the placement making it a negative experience I hate to think about but am always haunted by.
I was told by numerous people that failure makes you a stronger person and you will look back on the experience and be glad it happened. However for me, I look back and am filled with anxiety. A stepping stone towards my future career had gone so tragically wrong due to something mainly out of my control. It may be that it's too soon after the bad experience but I really don't feel it has made me a stronger person and that I can look back on it and see it as a positive.
It completely knocked my confidence going forward onto my next placement and even made me doubt my career choice. However I snapped out of that pretty quickly when I was working alongside the most amazing team and started receiving positive feedback! The placement went really well and has given me the confidence boost I need to move forwards.
This reinforced in my mind that I thrive from success and use that as a motivator. There may be some people that benefit from failing at something but I definitely know I'm not one of those people.
Here's to a fresh start!!
