Making Mistakes

The road of life is not a one-way street. It has many twists and turns, forks, and red lights. There are times when we have to make decisions on which way to go, or which turn to take. Sometimes, we need to stop and listen to think about what we are doing, or to take some advice from someone who has already been down the road. Now, the journey of life does not come with a GPS. There will be many instances where you will have to make a U-turn or stop and ask for directions.

All our lives, we strive for perfection. We don’t like to have any flaws, and we want everyone to think we have it all together. Perfection, in my opinion, is a stupid goal, because it is impossible. I believe, on the contrary, in making mistakes.

Last year, on October 5, 2009, I thought I had the worst day of my life. I was on my way home from school and it had been raining for about three days. I assumed the car in front of me was going to turn left, but it didn’t. Once I realized the car wasn’t turning I slammed on my breaks, causing my car to skid into the other car while going at least 40 miles per hour. The next thing I knew my airbags deployed. Once the tow truck finally arrived, my car caught fire. Well, my car was totaled, and thankfully, no one was hurt. The other car had some damage, but it was not totaled. I had made a mistake, a big one. I made an assumption, which is probably something you should never do while driving. But, I do not regret having the accident because I know how to prevent it, whereas someone who has never been in that situation may not know how to handle it if it comes along.

I have come to find out that it isn’t the decision that defines us, but the outcome of our decisions and what we make of the consequences. We learn through our mistakes. Take riding a bike for example; we fall off many times before we get the hang of it, but at the end we know how to balance and how to ride a bike. We can get all the knowledge in the world, but we have to figure out for ourselves how to use it. In order to do that we have to take risks. We need to get out there and play the game instead of just sitting on the sidelines. Playing by the rules, and trying to be perfect is not going to get us anywhere. However, taking risks can sometimes lead to mistakes, but those mistakes are what move us forward in life. We base our future on what we have done in the past, and the mistakes we learn from in the past can only make us better in the future.