College, the fear of failure, & Friday Night Lights

By Kate O’Flanagan

I’ve been watching a lot of Friday Night Lights recently. Over the course of five seasons, I’ve followed the exploits of the residents of the fictional town of Dillon, Texas as they cheer on the beating heart of their community, their high school football team. The show tackled various issues and themes before wrapping up its run in 2011, but one question cropped up repeatedly as the teenage characters ascended through high school – what about college?

Unconcerned with the minutiae of college life, characters are largely written out as they age out of high school, the show focuses more on what college represents. For Brian 'Smash' Williams, with dreams of making it big and giving back to his mother, or Luke Cafferty, desperately wanting to break tradition and leave the family farm behind, college is the promise of a “way out”. For them, and many others, the way out is a college degree leading to a job and, hopefully, a career. The Higher Education Authority’s graduate outcomes survey for the class of 2020 showed that 76 per cent of higher education students in the class of 2020 had jobs nine months after graduation, while 14 per cent were pursuing further study. However, the way out may also be more than a career path. 

College comes with the potential for reinvention. Maybe you hated your secondary school because it was a petty environment based on narrow notions of conformity. If so, welcome to third level eductaion. Here there is no uniform, no rules surrounding body modifications or makeup, no principal breathing down your neck on the lookout for any miniscule step out of line; you can be anyone you want. Personal discovery does not have to stop when you graduate, but university is a space uniquely ripe for experimentation. Try on different clothes, opinions, music tastes; take them off when they no longer serve you. The desire for change is what drives Tyra’s character in Friday Night Lights and ultimately forms the central argument of her college application. Tyra has dreams and desires that hinge on the “possibility that things are going to change” offered to her by going to university.

The transition to university can be a difficult one. Away from home for the first time and thrown into classes with hundreds of students, it can be overwhelming trying to figure out where to begin in crafting your college experience. My most important piece of advice is this: You cannot do it alone. The image of an academic in the zeitgeist is a solitary one. The scientist putting long hours in at the lab, the researcher holed up behind stacks of books in the library, the student cramming until the crack of dawn on exam day. When it comes down to the wire, to the exams themselves, you’re on your own. This is not the reality the rest of the time. In college you’re surrounded by people who are going through the exact same thing you are – the lectures, the deadlines, the uncertainty. Thanks to COVID, much of our socialisation over the past two years has been relegated to screens, but UCC is back in full swing this year. Lectures are back in person, and it’s not just first years being greeted by stranger’s faces. Take the risk. Gather the courage to reach out through the randomness to someone you may never have seen before. Whether it’s joining a literal team through one of the many clubs, getting stuck in with a society, or forming friendships in our courses, we're all in this together (*cue singing and cheesy High School Musical dance moves*).

For a narrative where college looms on the horizon, Friday Night Lights does not shy away from the reality that college is not for everyone. Tim Riggins, the unfailingly loyal fullback, goes to college because it’s what is expected of him, because his brother never got to, because he’s fast and strong and can play football and that’s what you do in Texas when you’re fast and strong and can play football and the universities come knocking. He doesn’t last a semester. There’s no narrative comeuppance for this, no punishment or presenting Tim as a failure. College simply wasn’t the right path for him. There is a pervading sense in Irish secondary schools that the Leaving Certificate is the end-all and be-all, that what you choose to study in college will define you for the rest of your life. Along with the unspoken assumption that everyone will go to college, this presents seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds with the near insurmountable feat of knowing which career is best for them. This pressure presents college as an obligation. The bare minimum lip service is paid to alternative routes. This over-focus on university is why Ireland has one of the highest dropout rates among first years in Europe, though the rate is steadily declining. With a decrease from 16 per cent almost 10 years ago to just 9 per cent among new entrants in 2019-2020 and the apprenticeship population increasing to 24,212 with a record 8,607 new registrations in 2021, this culture of presenting college as a one size fits all pathway for everyone may finally be waning.

Regardless of their thoughts on college, whether they go or not, or what they want to do afterwards, the characters that populate Dillon all want something – to be promoted, to get the girl, to win the State Championship. Wanting something is scary. Trying is downright terrifying. The show itself acknowledges this when Tyra admits her fear that “wanting would lead to trying and trying would lead to failure.” As a perfectionist who grapples with imposter syndrome, I know first-hand how visceral and paralyzing that fear of failure can be. Maybe that’s why a maelstrom of bittersweet, heart-aching hope fills my chest after every episode of Friday Night Lights.

This coach, his boys and their town continually show up for each other, demand more of each other and never give up. Coach throws the gauntlet down at his players' feet: be better. Not just on the football field, but in life. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they don't. Even then, when they fall short of the standard they're capable of reaching, it doesn't erase their value back to zero.

It's not about being the best, not really. It's about having the courage to try.