Tuesday, August 30, 2005

My Favorite Mistake

A great break up song. Now, true, I haven’t been broken up with in over 14 years, but I still get it. I get that people call some of their life’s choices mistakes, but that is one thing that George W. Bush and I have in common, I rarely acknowledge mistakes made.

I am not a stubborn person…no, I am, but I just try to think of them in a more positive perspective than mistakes. I just see them as choices. I always thought a mistake was an unfortunate act or decision caused by bad judgment or lack of information. I would say that most of my mistakes have been caused by lack of information…like, I had no idea that drinking that much tequila would make me that sick.

BUT! I am willing to admit mistakes because we all make them. Now, where do I start…first, my very first mistake that I can recall happened when I was a kindergartener. It is not my favorite mistake, but I think it is the first mistake...caused by sheer panic in the mind of a semi-innocent six year old. I rode the bus and as a kindergartener, there is nothing more frightening than believing that you missed the bus. Well, my teacher, Mrs. Tannahill called the class over to the carpet and told the class that “someone did not put away the felt board pieces and no one was going home until whoever played with the felt board cleans up.”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH! I have to get on the bus!!! She is going to make me miss the bus!!!,” a six-year-old Sara thought to herself.

So, I raised my hand and said that I had left the felt board pieces out even though I had not. I lied. I knew it was wrong to lie, but I had to catch the damn bus! So, I was advised to clean up the mess. Then, some do-gooder kindergarten classmate...I have a feeling it was my do-gooder neighbor Jason who told Mrs. Tannahill that I did not leave the pieces out. So, I not only got in the initial trouble for leaving out the felt board, I got in trouble for lying. It didn’t matter to Mrs. Tannahill the innocent motive for my falsehood.

So, it may not be my favorite mistake, but one of my first mistakes.

1 comment:

Super Rachel Zana said...

Oh Sara. I have that exact same fear of missing buses. The bus driver accidentally forgot to pick me up for school when I was in first grade, and I have been super paranoid ever since. In fact, I have a mistake a lot like yours only in reverse. In the 8th grade we made replicas of red blood cells out of jello (noodles and other food products represented cellular structures like mitochondira). We stored our jello cells in the cafeteria fridge on the shelf above the milk. At the end of the day I was rushing to avoid missing the bus and my jello cell spilled all over the next days small little milk cartons in their cute little crates. I didn't tell anyone. I didn't stop to clean up. I grabbed my jello and ran. Unfortnately my mistake was not as innocent as your kindergarten one. The cooks were angry, but because I was a good kid, they never suspected me. I spent the last four years of high school feeling guilty and ended up confessing to the community in my valedictorian speech. The audience at graduation didn't know what to think. My parents wanted to hide. But I entered college with a clear conscious!