Photo Guy Ackermans There are countless opinions about failure. Some see it as a stepping stone – an opportunity to learn, improve, and try again. Others take it hard, letting it trigger blame, shame, or even self-doubt. I belonged to the latter. For me, failure felt personal. I treated it as a flaw – evidence that I wasn’t smart enough, fast enough, or simply good enough.
One misstep would send me into a spiral of over-thinking and self doubting. My mindset was rigid: success meant getting it right the first time. Anything less felt like falling behind. But everything began to shift when I arrived in the Netherlands and encountered the Dutch academic system.
One misstep would send me into a spiral of over-thinking and self doubting.
Here, failure is… ordinary. Resits are built into the structure, not as punishments, but as planned pauses. If you don’t clear a course the first time, you try again. No guilt. No judgement. Just space to reassess, relearn, and redo. At first, I couldn’t shake the unease. Taking a resit felt like announcing my incompetence. I was waiting for someone to call me out. But no one did. Professors treated it like routine. Classmates spoke about retakes as casually as weekend plans.
That’s when it hit me: it wasn’t failure that was the problem. It was my fear of it. Slowly, I began to unlearn the pressure to be perfect. I realized that learning isn’t linear, and growth rarely happens without a few stumbles. A resit wasn’t a sign of failure – it was an opportunity. A second chance to understand, reflect, and do better.
In this environment, I have found something unexpected: peace. I have stopped equating my worth with my grades. I started to see mistakes as part of progress, not as the end of it. Now, when I face setbacks, I don’t internalize them. I don’t retreat, I reset. I take the next step – not in shame, but in stride. This academic structure didn’t just teach me course content. It taught me resilience. And that lesson? Worth every retake.
Arohi Natu, is a first year Master’s student Food Technology from India. She is a creative person who likes to try new things and also loves cooking, singing, painting and exploring new places.
