A Smack in the Face.

Reality check.

Heavenly Father sends just the right things at just the right times. Like today, the good and the bad. 

I do well in school. It's something I enjoy and something I work hard at. Keeping my grades up is not too big of a challenge for me and learning is a desire I have had for years, especially when it comes to liberal arts. 
But that's beside the point. 

The point is I needed a reality check. School isn't always fine-and-dandy. Neither is life, and obstacles will come my way. Maybe I was starting to forget those things, because for no apparent reason, I failed an exam today.

Yeah, yeah.

I studied! I promise! I am no slacker. Actually, I studied a lot. I put a lot of work into this Oral Exam, but passing with flying colors and walking away with honors must not have been the plan (like I thought it was).

I've been thinking about it all day. "There is NO reason I should've failed that. I worked plenty hard." is what I've been pondering. WHY did I fail it then? It was for deeper reasons, I believe. Intuitional reasons. It was a smack in the face. A wake-up call, of sorts. Something placed in my life at this time to say, "Hey, you. Life can get disappointing. What are you going to do about it?" 

It's also a test. Not just a test on geographics, a test on something bigger. 
Immediately after I failed the Oral I knew I had two options.
A) Cry. Sob. Sit at my desk in despair. Let it bring me down. Convince myself I'm a failure. Blame my mentor.
B) Use it as that aggravating, annoying, bitter, nasty motivation to step it up and do better. To blow the socks off my mentor for the rest of the semester. To destroy the final I'll be taking in a couple months. To be better. 

Incase you're wondering, I went with option B.

But there were good things that took place today that helped with that decision. Like the private chats I got after my exam...the supportive ones, the sympathetic ones, the funny ones about rotten lemons, the ones that said "It'll all be okay". It's just an exam. I shall pick my head up and kill the rest of the semester. 

Here we go.