Darius wanted to build a small bookshelf for his room. He measured the boards, marked where to cut, and worked carefully in the garage.
When he finished, he stood the shelf against the wall and stepped back.
It leaned badly to one side.
Darius frowned. He had spent most of the afternoon working on it, and now it looked terrible. For a moment, he thought about throwing the whole thing away.
Instead, he looked closely at what he had done. One board was slightly shorter than the others. Two of the screws had also gone in at an angle.
Darius took the shelf apart, measured the boards again, and started over. His second attempt was not perfect either, but it stood straight.
He looked at the pile of discarded screws and scraps of wood on the floor and smiled. The mistakes had cost him time, but they had also shown him what to do differently.
Short Constructed Response
What does the story suggest about responding to failure?
