Failure is a bruise, not a tattoo.

“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.”- Oscar Wilde

                                             As humans, making mistakes is a very natural part of life. If you are like most people, you probably view your mistakes negatively, right? Well, I do too and that’s completely run-of-the-mill kind of a situation. The mistake may have a certain severity level, like it could be a time that you completely messed up or a time that you just made a silly error and could easily mend it back. I won’t say that every mistake has a solution to fix it back. But instead would like to bring up a question that if we cry after the error has been done, does it heal itself?

                                             Even your autocorrect makes mistakes. So there is nothing to be shamed about the ones you make. In lieu we should think about the lessons we could learn from them. Now, let’s not be narrow-minded and think that there’s nothing to learn from it and keep torturing ourselves for the ‘massive’ fault that has been made. Mistakes are proof that you’re trying, unless it’s one made in a surgery. They say, “DO NOT CRY OVER SPILT MILK.” That is actually true. Learning from the mistakes you’ve made is the best way to move on from the trauma of the error. If you actually are eager and positive you can definitely find out at least one learning from them. It would be a greater mistake than the actual one if we did not respond to the error properly. When we make a mistake, it gives us the opportunity to learn what went wrong and how to improve. It gives us experience which is like holy water because self realisation is the best way to learn. The mistakes made in our childhood are the best because they teach us all problem-solving skills, patience and confidence we need to face the upcoming obstacles. Who said that teachers need to tutor everything? Personal experiences can too and this is the perfect way to prove that. Mistakes also remind us that no one is perfect and keep us grounded. They implant in our minds to never give up and keep trying no matter what comes in the way. Einstein, Newton or Edison could never achieve or invent anything  if they never made any errors and learnt the good from them. Well, many do wish that Newton never learnt from his.

                                          We can conclude that instead of seeing mistakes as an evil and dark way, we should be viewing them as the bright stepping stones to success.

So, the next time you make a mistake, don’t panic — celebrate! You’ve just discovered another creative way not to do something. After all, even the eraser on a pencil is proof that humans were born to make mistakes. The key is to laugh, learn, and move on — because if we never made mistakes, we’d have nothing to laugh about… and no reason to improve!

- Srisahasra Settipalli 9B