"Mistakes"

Dear Readers,

Okay, bear with me. I was watching Avatar the Last Air-Bender, and I'm going to try not to go into the developmental flaws in the episode I was watching, but that might happen so feel free to skip those parts. I was watching an episode in book 1, the one where Aang tries to learn firebending before he's ready, with Jeong-Jeong, and he accidentally burns Katara. I have to say, it did not seem like Katara to run off crying, like yeah it hurts but I think she would trust her brother and others enough to at least stand her ground. Crying yeah, that's fine, but like... running away? That's not Katara. I didn't like that. It was pushy writing to add guilt to Aang in order to fuel his later actions.

BACK TO THE POINT. So in this episode, Aang burns Katara because he isn't being careful. Jeong Jeong and others try to warn him about it, but they're continuously cryptic and not straightforward, and then they're all super mad at him and disappointed when he makes a mistake. Fire is dangerous, it's not something to be played around with and Aang knew that, but it kind of made me think.

Some of the greatest/most important lessons I have ever learned were not when I avoided trouble by listening to those around me, but when I made a stupid decision, a mistake, and I faced the consequences. Learning and growing are not about allowing others to teach you how to avoid consequences, but to let you make your mistakes, then stand by you and help you face the consequences. It's a part of life, rather than instructing how not to mess up, teach people how to mess up, and then clean it up after. Teach them how to turn these things into learning experiences. Teach them to think fast. Teach them to react and think things through, so if this ever applies to a drastic case, like fire, they get their sense of panic and guilt that they will avoid feeling again, but they can avoid dire or drastic results that affect those around them.

We were not put on this earth to be judged for not obeying every rule. We are not living our lives to think about how we can best avoid messing up. Humans are flawed, we are going to screw up, trip over ourselves and make mistakes a hundred times over. The most important thing is to make sure that we learn from those mistakes. Learning from the choices of others is a great skill to have. But you will always learn more from the choices you make yourself.

This is really short and I'm halfway through another thought/essay/rant I started a few days ago, maybe even a week ago so we'll see when that goes up.

But remember not to beat yourself up over mistakes. Find the lesson, clean up your mess, and move on.
Ever sincerely,
Emily Kate