“You can call them games in life. Wrestling was one of my games. School is one of my games. If I fail at one game, that doesn’t mean that I have to fail at all of the other games or that I have to let my other games suffer because of my failure in the one.”

These are the words of Alliance senior, Lane Applegarth. Lane is a familiar face in the hallways of Alliance High School. He is most commonly recognized as a member of the wrestling team, but also takes part in the school’s National Honor Society and FBLA chapters and is constantly noticed for his achievements in both academics and extracurriculars.

Lane has made it clear that he is not afraid to put himself out there. On various social media accounts, he has posted the goals he has set for himself. Lane kept these goals written on his bathroom mirror and while this may seem like a strange location, he has a reason. Here, Lane is able to constantly see them and is able to remind himself of the bigger picture.

“It’s just something that I’ve always done. I didn’t realize that it was that uncommon of a thing. I’ve always put quotes on my mirror and I think last year I started writing my goals down, just so I could see them everyday, multiple times a day.”

Putting his goals out there gives Lane an extra sense of motivation to achieve them, as he knows people are watching.

“I feel like talking about them and putting them out there makes it feel more real too, so it helps me.”

Because he is able to put himself out there, one word commonly used to describe Lane is “arrogant”. In response to this, Lane quotes Epictetus. “If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you, but answer, ‘He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.’”

To Lane, this quote is a reminder of his faults. “It means that I see more faults in myself than anyone else does, so a person talking about a particular fault of mine does not bother me because I know about the fault and have examined it deeper than anyone else has along with all of my other faults. My biggest critic is myself.”

This February, Lane proved that he is undeserving of the negative label, exposing a side of him that is not always shown. At the 2018 state wrestling tournament, Lane had his biggest let down on the biggest stage he had set for himself. Prior to the tournament, he set one goal and that was to become the 2018 160-pound state champion. However, things fell out of his reach and after two rounds, Lane was eliminated from the tournament.

Those around Lane embraced him, proud of all he had accomplished over the season. Lane opened up on the subject stating, “That first match broke me pretty bad. It was the first round, but after that loss I knew that I would never be a state champion like I wanted to be, so that broke me… I went up and spoke to some other people in my family. My oldest sister was in my ear telling me that I was so much bigger and inspiring to her than my performance at state… She told me that my nephew, Aidan, who is three, looks up to me and loves me so much regardless… He asked me if I just wrestled and had fun when he first saw me. It choked me up. He didn’t know that I had just lost and ended my career. He just wanted to know if I was having fun.”

Lane also went and talked to his brother-in-law, who Lane says usually helps keep things in perspective for Lane. “He lets me know what things are important. He let me know that winning a state championship really wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things. It’s how you act and how you handle things, and that meant a lot to me.”

On the second day of the tournament, three of Lane’s teammates advanced to the finals, including his best friend, Evan Steggs.

“I have given Steggs a ride home everyday since like halfway through freshman season. We just get each other. We connect like nothing else… I just thought Steggs is gonna wrestle for a state championship, so my negativity about what I did shouldn’t impact him. I had to be positive and do what he needed me to do.”

From here, Lane decided to place focus elsewhere and celebrate his friend’s success as if it were his own, even stating that he cried harder for Steggs than he did for himself.

The biggest lesson to take from Lane is that it does not matter if you do not achieve the goal. What truly matters is your actions following your failure. True champions shine the brightest through their biggest failures. Lane is constantly labeled as arrogant, simply because he is not afraid to put himself out there. He does not fear what other people think and never lets others influence how he lives his life. Looking at Lane’s resume, one can assume that he never fails and that the cards of life are always in his favor. However, like everyone else, Lane is just playing the game of life.

As far as handling failure goes, Lane believes failure helps you. How you handle failure will determine how you are perceived. Knowing he risks criticism, he still puts himself out there not because he wants to show off, but because he wants to inspire people to go after their goals and to accept their failures as a lesson. Even the great Lane Applegarth does not achieve all of the goals on the mirror.

“Just accept that you are going to have bad times and challenges. You can’t let things get to you.”

There will always be people waiting for you to fail, but Lane’s biggest advice is to simply focus on the people who still support you after you fail. As he says, there are various levels in the game of life. The legacy you leave behind is created by your integrity following failure.

Lane plays the game of life by hiding nothing; sometimes he wins and sometimes he loses. At times, his style of play may come off as arrogant; however, it is simply out of confidence in himself and his understanding that win or lose, at least he still chose to play the game. You decide how you want to play.