A lot of colleges' essay questions ask you to describe a time that you failed or made a mistake. Nobody is successful all the time, so colleges don't expect seventeen year-olds to be perfect. But they ask the question because the way you handle these circumstances says a lot about your character.
Baseball fans saw a great example of that this week when umpire Jim Joyce absolutely blew a call that cost pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game. The replay made it obvious to everyone, including Joyce, that he'd missed the call. So he did something you almost never see an umpire do. He admitted he was wrong and apologized.
“It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the sh*t out of it, I just cost that kid a perfect game. I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay.”
He also apologized personally to the pitcher, Galarraga.
"Joyce felt badly enough about it that, long after the game was over,
he asked to meet with Galarraga. It’s an incredibly unusual move, but
given the circumstances, it was understandable.Tigers president/general manager Dave Dombrowski brought Galarraga
from the home clubhouse into the umpires’ room.'He asked if he could see Armando and I brought Armando in there,' Dombrowski said, 'and [Joyce] apologized profusely to him and he said he
just felt terrible. They hugged each other and Armando said, ‘I
understand.’"
Major League Baseball gave Joyce the option to take the next game off, but he declined, even though he knew what he was in for. He said he was, "Ready for boos" and promised,
"I’ll take it. “I’ll take whatever you can give me, and I’ll
handle it like a man, and I’ll do the best I can.”
And here's what happened in the next game.