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Not being able to fail is the essence of a perfect world. That’s because most things in life require failure. We wouldn’t be able to learn from experiences where something didn’t work out and had to find a way around the problem; we wouldn’t be as efficient at problem solving and we’d be doing everything we want to do mindlessly without worry or fear of failure. 

Failure is such a normal part of my life, whether I like it or not, to the point where it's almost impossible to imagine what life would be like without it. Though, if that really were the case, the first thing that comes to mind is that I’d want to do everything I’ve ever attempted to do or thought about doing. I probably wouldn’t have enough time in my lifespan to follow through and complete all of those careers and activities. 

I’ve been so afraid of failure throughout my life because of the way I was taught on certain things and specific experiences I had when I was younger. I can certainly recognize the effects that it’s had on my life, one being that I am often scared of doing things that are out of my comfort zone or unfamiliar to me. Even down to just choosing what kind of bubble tea I want to drink; I always stick to the same flavors every time, and I end up asking myself, when will I ever try something different? I’m curious and want to try new things. I’m bored of choosing the same thing every time. But why do I always change my mind? Just like this, I catch myself choosing to do things in a way I (allegedly) know for sure won’t fail, without questioning it until I think about the reasoning behind my choices and actions after it's happened. Of course, I still run into failure, but I’m always confined in a box of my own knowledge, not being able to reach outside of it. Now that I think about it, I can clearly see the pattern of this behavior in many more parts of my life than I previously thought--including my decision for what career I want to pursue as my life progresses.    

If I really had to pick one career to follow if I couldn’t fail, I’d probably become a studio artist. The high risks of becoming successful as a fine artist has had a significant impact on my decision to not pursue art, along with the way society views careers in art (though these are not the only reasons). When people ask you what you’re doing as a student, if you say, for example, that you’re in dental school, most people will see that as “ambitious”, “useful”, “professional”, while if you say you’re in art school, its “financially poor” or “will be poor” and sometimes even “waste of time and money ” or they’ll associate it with “failure”. There’s a lot of looking-down-upon and discouragement that happens to people wanting to go into or are already involved in the art field. To an extent, I understand why society and its people may have certain stereotypes and biases about art. It’s true that it may be riskier or more difficult for those who want to become successful as fine artists compared to other careers. If I couldn’t fail, meaning that if it was guaranteed that I would be able to “make it” in the world as a renowned fine artist, I would do it 100% without question. 

As I mentioned earlier, I could easily say the same for many other dream careers or activities. But interestingly enough, my first ever career dream was to become an artist. It stayed the same for a while until I started getting exposed to more and more topics as I grew older. At one point, I was so certain I was going to be a veterinarian that I made a list, though very vague and realistically inaccurate as a result of my yet-to-be educated elementary self, of my life plan to become one. Despite all this, art has stuck with me and I’ve apparently refused to let it go unlike my other interests and dreams. That’s why I would want to choose doing art over anything else if I didn’t have to worry about failure. Gladly, I still plan on keeping it a large part of my life even if I’m not thinking about pursuing it as a career right now. And maybe, just maybe...I might break out of my box one day and attempt to make it a more mainstream part of my life.