Which is Worse: Failing or Never Trying?

The next question on Marc and Angel's 50 Questions that Will Free Your Mind is "Which is worse: failing or never trying?"

I'm a person that likes to look at the facts...sooo it depends on the facts. For instance lets use drugs as an example. Lets say someone tries heroin for the first time (I already call this a fail but am going to go on) and he or she does a little too much and overdoses, ultimately resulting in death. In this situation, this person definitely failed and should have never tried heroin right? Trying is worse

This is really only a smarty pants example. But, it is true. In most cases never trying is worse. I think its very important for a person to not be afraid of failure. Just because one fails once does not necessarily mean it will continuously happen. A lot can be learned from failure. You might find out that a particular career path you chose isn't going to work out but something far more interesting came along. Such as my situation.

When I graduated from college with degrees in both political science and psychology, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. When I was about seven years old, I had a dream to being an attorney and at 23 it was still somewhat something I wanted to do. I also really like psych but wasn't sure if I wanted to make a career of it. Third, I had recently learned about occupational therapy and thought it sounded cool. Instead of simply choosing one, I got a little experience with each! When I first moved to Florida, I worked at an inpatient acute rehab facility. A lot of clients had schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder. I learned a lot at this job about these conditions as well as about myself. I really enjoy working with people in an environment where I am helping them but I do not want to work is psychiatry every day for the rest of my life. It really takes a toll on a person and requires a very special type of person.

Then I was offered a job with a law firm. I am very happy I took this job and learned a little more about myself. I had been told numerous times to get experience in law before going to law school to make sure it was something I wanted to do. Best advice anyone has given me career wise. I think a lot of aspects about my job are very interesting but I cannot sit in an office all day long. I can't talk to clients on the phone more of the day. All in all this is not the type of job I would be happy in, especially since it requires a lot of hours.

So far my only experience with OT has been with my dad. When he was initially recovering from the heart attack he had lost a lot of his strength and had to relearn how to talk, write, walk, all sorts of things people take for granted. I worked with him a lot on his hands and arms, providing resistance for him to regain strength in his arms. Playing cards to work on fine motor movement in his hands. I really enjoyed it and at the time a lot of people were encouraging me to get involved with an OT program, which is what I'm doing down a year later. Now that I got my feet wet in all three things I want to do, I've finally made a choice! With occupational therapy I will get to work with a variety of clients and help them. I won't have to sit a a desk all day if I don't want to. I will get to be creative and see people make so many improvements in life! Soooo excited!

Even though I tried out a number of different things before I made a decision, I don't consider them fails. It was important to me to be sure that whatever I chose to study in graduate school was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life before I spent a lot of money to find out I didn't like something. I am very confident that I will enjoy OT. But anyways, its time go eat. Good night!