The Most Valuable Lesson I Learned From A Mistake

Mistakes! What are they? To be learned from, or to just do and leave?

Everyone makes mistakes. Big and small ones. People always tell me to learn from my mistakes so that I’ll never do them again. Sometimes it works. Other times it doesn’t.

The most valuable lesson I’ve learnt from a mistake came after leaving my assignments to the last minute. I know, you might think that this is okay; that anyone can do it yet still manage to finish on time. Not to your personal best though.

By ‘assignments’ I mean: reports, exams, marks, research, presentations, speeches... the list goes on. There is nothing worse than leaving an assignment untouched to the last minute. “Here we go, another assessment task. Gosh! It’s due next week on Friday. I have plenty of time! It’s only Thursday today.” This is an example of the exact kind of thing I say whenever I get a new English assignment.

Friday: “I’m not bothered today, besides I don’t understand the second part.” “I need to ask the teacher for explanation.” “It’s too hard, I only got it yesterday.” “I still have a whole week to finish this.”

Saturday: “Today’s the start of the weekend, I can’t possibly do anything today.” “I need some rest.” “Let me watch some movies and paint my nails.” Sunday: “The weather is so nice today, I want to go walk outside or do something fun.” “SHOPPING!” “Oh! I forgot today’s my friend’s birthday party. I NEED TO GET READY.”

Monday: “I don’t have English today and I still don’t understand the assignment.” Tuesday: “Hi miss, I have some trouble understanding the second part of this assignment…” Wednesday: “Alright, here we go: Shakespeare was one of the most famous poets and playwrights of the Elizabethan era… I deserve a rest. I’ll wake up in an hour.” 6 HOURS LATER: “IT’S NINE, HOW DID I SLEEP FOR THAT LONG?! I guess I’m gonna just continue sleeping and finish the assignment tomorrow.” Thursday: “I need to type 1500 words. THIS IS TOO MUCH, I CAN’T DO THIS IN ONE DAY.” “It’s 6pm and I’ve only done half of the assignment.” “I need a little break.”

That “little break” went for a whole hour, before I remembered my assignment was waiting for me. I didn’t finish it until 12:45 am. I printed the papers and placed them in a plastic sleeve that has my name on it. Of course, since it was already so late, I didn’t check my work and go over my writing. This was my second biggest mistake.

Friday: “It’s due today! I should read over it first.” I found many, many mistakes in my grammar, though I couldn’t fix them because it was too late to do so. The bell has already gone. I had to hand it in.

Here's my lesson: Start your assignments on the day you get them, to save yourself the stress and give yourself time to read over them again and improve your writing.

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