Overcoming Failures In Henry Ford's 'Kicking Shyness'

Children encounter several challenges and make errors along the way; this allows them to grow from their mistakes and gain more information and experience for the future. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” (Henry Ford) (Thesis) Children lose their innocence and begin to see the world with a deeper understanding when they accept failure and disappointment while confronting the adult world. TS: When growing up, people face challenges, but to become mature, you have to accept your failures and disappointments and learn from them. In the short story “Kicking Shyness”, a young girl who struggles to find herself finds a tae kwon do class and grows to love it. Her family and friends didn't believe in her,

Eventually, though, I was not just graceful but good enough to earn a yellow, then an orange, then a green belt (Unknown Paragraph 5).” (CM) Even though her friends made fun of her, it made her stronger, so she kept working hard. Accepting the disappointment of her friends and family for not supporting her helped her gain confidence. She didn't want to prove them wrong, but she wanted to prove to herself that she could do it. We can see that Wetherell, as a young boy, from the short story “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant” has to face failure and disappointment when he picks Sheila over the bass and cuts the line. Once he cuts the line, he says, “With a sick, nauseous feeling in my stomach, I saw the rod unwind. (Wetherell 4)” (CM) We can see that the second he cut the line, he immediately knew that he had made the wrong choice. We'll learn that what we want at the moment isn't always the best thing. Wetherell had to accept his bad choice and realize we shouldn’t base love on looks and physical appearance. He learned that he shouldn't have to change for someone to accept him and that if someone wants you to change, it's not who you should be with. This helped him evolve and