For Britney Butler, check failure is not an option. The John Marshall High School senior said she actually has a fear of failing. “I don’t really know where it came from. It’s just that I don’t want to have to struggle in life. I don’t want to have to need something, sickness ” she said. “It’s kind of like a self fear … I have to be all that I can be. I have to be the best I can be.”

Being the best she can be is definitely what she has been doing in order to overcome her fear of failing. Britney has strived to excel at everything in life. She’s in the top five percent of her class and has been involved in her high school softball team and marching band. Britney says that she gets this never-fail attitude from her mother, find Tina Robinson. “She’s so strong and she doesn’t ever want to give up, so I don’t want to give up.”

Her mother, who suffers from nerve problems that affect her neck and back, is unable to work. Britney says this makes it hard on the family sometimes, but even that does not discourage her mother. “She’s emotionally strong, she doesn’t just quit. She doesn’t show that she’s stressing. She stays smiling and tells us not to worry. She stays strong and always has faith,” Britney said. “Looking at her inspires me because I want to be like her emotionally; it makes me want to be a better person.” She also added that seeing her mother struggle makes her want to do better because she does not want to go through the same struggle.

In order to avoid that, Britney will be going to Norfolk State University in the fall with a major in psychology. She chose this major because she grew a strong interest for helping people. “I was always helping people and helping them with their problems; that’s when it became a passion. That’s when I was like I want to be a psychologist.” She said the people she often helps are her friends and acquaintances at school who often come to her with their personal problems and seek guidance.

Britney has, so far, been successful in avoiding the failure she fears so much. She has a great role model in her mother. She is doing excellent in school and is now going to a great university. She looks on toward her future at NSU.  Britney says she looks forward to being out on her own and proving to herself she can be successful.