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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Survival / Success
- Subject: Art / Music / Theater / Dance
- Published: 05/29/2022
Failing Upwards
Born 1948, F, from Epping. Essex, United Kingdom.jpeg)
Failing Upwards
If failing your exams at every stage in your education made you a failure, then yes, Harry was that.
But he never allowed himself to be defined in that way. Even when he opened the envelope with his exam results, at the age of sixteen, and he saw the rows of ‘Fail’ beside every subject, bar one, he had just felt a bit downcast, but he had gained a pass in English Literature, and he was pleased about that. Harry read voraciously and had done so since the age of five. He had always been the boy who drifted off in every lesson but he was not daft, because when he drifted off he was creating something in his head. It might be a song, a story, it might be devising a machine, a painting, but usually it was a piece of music.
But he felt for his parents. They tried so hard not to look disappointed.
So he said: ‘Never mind. I’ll have a go at taking them again in the Autumn’.
His mum had sighed and said: ‘If only you would apply yourself Harry.’
Harry dreamed on, failing at most things but being quite happy in his own world. He had hopes and dreams. They just weren’t about passing exams. His teachers despaired of him.
Harry resat his exams, achieved a few more passes, and that enabled him to join a college course in Performing Arts. And guess what? He fitted into this environment. He was accepted. The girls loved him with his baby soft blonde hair, hazel eyes and he was sexy without ever realising it. The girls described him as ‘cute’ or ‘quirky’. The boys puzzled over this.
‘He doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t say much, he hardly comes out, so what is it?’
Harry didn’t make enemies. He was simply too kind, too generous and sometimes he made them laugh aloud. He could be so funny.
So, he went to college for 2 years, and there he began to excel because he could sing. He had soul. He could act. He was able to morph into any character, and he discovered he could really dance.
All the way through college, he was building little successes. He scored high marks in any practical activity but he still did poorly with coursework.
But his lecturers knew.
‘That Harry, he knows where he’s going and he is going to be a success’.
The first time anybody had ever said that about him.
And so, no one was too surprised when an agent scouted him when he was singing in the student bar on their karaoke night.
A young woman came up to him and gave him her card.
‘Call me. I’m an agent. I think I could do something with you’.
And indeed, she did. Her name was Rosine and once Harry had called her, and she had taken him to dinner to discuss his future and her management of him, his life changed.
After leaving college, he coasted along the bottom of theatre life, picking up jobs, going for auditions, successful at some but being accepted for parts in the chorus.
When success started to come, the trajectory was immense. First a part in the chorus of a production of Evita, then an understudy role to the lead in a provincial tour of Moulin Rouge, and then the big break, winning a televised competition where the prize was a lead part in a production in of Mama Mia’.
When he won, everyone said:
‘We always knew he had it in him’.
Today Harry lay on the grass looking up at the clouds and smiled to himself as he thought back. It was fitting that people described him as ‘always having his head in the clouds’.
‘That dreamy kid, got his head in the clouds, won’t amount to much, probably needs his parents supporting him all his life’.
Well, here he was. In a few hours he would walk down Shaftsbury Avenue to the theatre, and when the show was over, the audience would be standing, cheering, and applauding, and then Harry would know he had failed upwards. With that thought he got up, brushed the grass off his trousers and walked to success.
Failing Upwards(Kristin Dockar)
Failing Upwards
If failing your exams at every stage in your education made you a failure, then yes, Harry was that.
But he never allowed himself to be defined in that way. Even when he opened the envelope with his exam results, at the age of sixteen, and he saw the rows of ‘Fail’ beside every subject, bar one, he had just felt a bit downcast, but he had gained a pass in English Literature, and he was pleased about that. Harry read voraciously and had done so since the age of five. He had always been the boy who drifted off in every lesson but he was not daft, because when he drifted off he was creating something in his head. It might be a song, a story, it might be devising a machine, a painting, but usually it was a piece of music.
But he felt for his parents. They tried so hard not to look disappointed.
So he said: ‘Never mind. I’ll have a go at taking them again in the Autumn’.
His mum had sighed and said: ‘If only you would apply yourself Harry.’
Harry dreamed on, failing at most things but being quite happy in his own world. He had hopes and dreams. They just weren’t about passing exams. His teachers despaired of him.
Harry resat his exams, achieved a few more passes, and that enabled him to join a college course in Performing Arts. And guess what? He fitted into this environment. He was accepted. The girls loved him with his baby soft blonde hair, hazel eyes and he was sexy without ever realising it. The girls described him as ‘cute’ or ‘quirky’. The boys puzzled over this.
‘He doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t say much, he hardly comes out, so what is it?’
Harry didn’t make enemies. He was simply too kind, too generous and sometimes he made them laugh aloud. He could be so funny.
So, he went to college for 2 years, and there he began to excel because he could sing. He had soul. He could act. He was able to morph into any character, and he discovered he could really dance.
All the way through college, he was building little successes. He scored high marks in any practical activity but he still did poorly with coursework.
But his lecturers knew.
‘That Harry, he knows where he’s going and he is going to be a success’.
The first time anybody had ever said that about him.
And so, no one was too surprised when an agent scouted him when he was singing in the student bar on their karaoke night.
A young woman came up to him and gave him her card.
‘Call me. I’m an agent. I think I could do something with you’.
And indeed, she did. Her name was Rosine and once Harry had called her, and she had taken him to dinner to discuss his future and her management of him, his life changed.
After leaving college, he coasted along the bottom of theatre life, picking up jobs, going for auditions, successful at some but being accepted for parts in the chorus.
When success started to come, the trajectory was immense. First a part in the chorus of a production of Evita, then an understudy role to the lead in a provincial tour of Moulin Rouge, and then the big break, winning a televised competition where the prize was a lead part in a production in of Mama Mia’.
When he won, everyone said:
‘We always knew he had it in him’.
Today Harry lay on the grass looking up at the clouds and smiled to himself as he thought back. It was fitting that people described him as ‘always having his head in the clouds’.
‘That dreamy kid, got his head in the clouds, won’t amount to much, probably needs his parents supporting him all his life’.
Well, here he was. In a few hours he would walk down Shaftsbury Avenue to the theatre, and when the show was over, the audience would be standing, cheering, and applauding, and then Harry would know he had failed upwards. With that thought he got up, brushed the grass off his trousers and walked to success.
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Kristin Dockar
09/18/2022Thank you. I always like to see what children 'can' do, not what they 'can't ' do!
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Valerie Allen
09/18/2022Kristin ~
It's important to focus on the positve. We all need to dwell on the strengths we have, knowing we can't do everything up to the standards of others. You did a great job getting this message across. Thank you ~
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Shirley Smothers
09/18/2022Love this. We all have our special talents. Glad he found his. Thanks for sharing this tale.
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Lillian Kazmierczak
09/18/2022I love the phrase failed upward! Not everyone takes the academic path, that's why life is interesting because there are so many ways to be successful! Great story! congratulations on short story star of the day!
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Kristin Dockar
09/18/2022So true Lillian. This was me up to the age of 18, then I got my act together!!
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JD
05/29/2022Good one. I like the concept of failing your way to success. I imagine that a lot of successful 'creative' people took a similar path. Thanks for another great story, Kristin.
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