Our school motto is “Failure Is Not An Option.” This means that you have to succeed; you cannot fail. But what if this motto is wrong?

Perhaps failure is an option. The weird thing is, failure is almost as beneficial as success. You might be asking How is it helpful? Well, I’ll tell you.

When you don’t get the A+ you studied for, maybe you choose to respond by working harder, trying to earn a better grade. Everyone has failed a test or received an unexpectedly low grade at some point. It feels horrible! Who wants to experience that again? So we try to succeed where we failed so we don’t have that feeling again.

If you always get 100% on tests, you will never know how it feels to fail and how to respond when it happens. In the real world, let’s face it, getting accepted to every college or acquiring that dream job the first time is pretty much impossible. If you have experienced failure, you know what to do: work hard and improve on what you were doing wrong. You acknowledge the failure and figure out how to avoid repeating it.

World renowned author, J.K. Rowling once said, “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”

Sure, “Failure Is Not An Option” is well-meaning, but it doesn’t help in the grand scheme of things. When they say it, they are probably telling us to try our hardest, but they are also suggesting that we aren’t allowed to fail in the first place. If kids think they are not allowed to fail, they may never attempt anything new solely out of a fear of failing.

“If you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail … it takes backbone to lead the life that you want,” said American novelist Richard Yates.

From personal experience, I can tell you that failure has actually helped me. I am a goalkeeper for a local soccer team. When I get scored on, it sucks. As a response, I strive to become a better, stronger goalie. Failure is an option. And man, have I failed.

When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel,” said writer Eloise Ristad.

Failure is an option because it comes with a silver lining. In fact, it is almost as good as success.