7 Things You Should Learn From My Mistakes Last Week

We all make mistakes. Apparently, when this happens, you are supposed to laugh at yourself when you can, apologize when appropriate, and learn from them. But today, you are in for a treat, because you get to skip all of the discomfort that accompanies actually making mistakes, and just learn from some of my mistakes from the past week.

1.      Back up your laptop more frequently than you think you should. It will always work perfectly fine until the day it doesn’t. When that day comes, your hard drive will have crashed and you will wish that you had backed it up recently. I promise. 

2.      Call people more often. I am not super fond of talking on the phone, and I am not much better about initiating skype dates with friends who don’t live nearby. However, it is unlikely that I will look back and think, “Man, I wish that I hadn’t talked to my college roommate a second time that one week. That was overkill. And skyping with that friend that I am going to visit in two weeks? Wow, that  was too much.” I won’t regret calling, but I probably will regret not calling. Just call.

3.      Given the opportunity, go swimming. I don’t care if you have been unconsciously avoiding swimming because your hands react to chlorine, you are always on the verge of losing your contacts underwater, or you just don’t like the way your hips look in a swimsuit (I obviously can’t relate to any of these things). Swimming is fun, and you should do it.

4.      Be more considerate to your mother, but remember that you can’t make her happy all the time. This is actually true of everyone you know. There are definitely times when I lean towards selfishness and laziness, at which times I need to man up (or perhaps woman up? or person up?) and be helpful when I don’t feel like it. There are other times when I need to stick to my convictions, and doing so makes her unhappy and/or causes conflict. When this happens, I am tempted to think that I am not being considerate enough when it’s actually a different matter entirely. Try to find that line.

Unless you are a cat, in which case you don't need a
bedtime because you sleep all the time anyway...

5.      Give yourself a bedtime. Otherwise, all you workaholics will just work forever, and all you night owls will stay up late because the chemicals in your brain are telling you that you are wide awake. Interesting confluence of these two issues… staring at a computer screen right before bed can actually keep you from sleeping, because most computer screens produce a blue wavelength of light that is normally present in the morning. The photopigment melanopsin reacts to this blue light in the morning to wake you up, while the absence of blue light in the evening causes increased production of melatonin (which makes you sleepy). So turn off all those screens you keep staring at and go to bed at a reasonable time… scientists believe that not going to sleep at night makes you not want to get up in the morning.<< that’s real science right there ;)

6.      Certain kinds of fruit are not in season for very long. If you want to make cherry pies, make room in your schedule when they come in season. Don’t wait until it fits into your schedule, because that might be 10 days later and by then they might not be in season. And then you might have to wait for an entire year before you can make more of your favorite pies. Obviously, these are all just vague things that might happen. But if it does happen, I assure you that you will be sad.

7.      Give up the illusion that you are self-sufficient and competent at all the things you would like to be. I hate feeling stupid, and I would rather everyone think that I am competent and can handle myself than realize that I don’t understand or know how to do something. I think this is compounded by the fact that I am mostlykindofprobably an adult and often feel like people expect me to be able to do x, y, or z by this point in my life. However, despite being a Martin *cough*know-it-all*cough* there are plenty of things that I am not an expert at (computers, handguns, plenty of science concepts), and there are times when I have to get someone to help me, explain something, or fix something. Realizing this ahead of time will probably make it easier to ask, and clearly stating that you know nothing and that they need to start at the beginning or dumb it down will increase the amount that you learn. It turns out that going in with humility is more helpful in these cases than faking confidence (although that is certainly helpful at other times). 

      So there you go! Also, in case you were wondering, the cute tuxedo kitty is Proverb. He belongs to some friends of mine, and since my hard drive was KIA, my pictures of Lady M and Elizabeth may or may not be lost. We'll see. Luckily, Proverb is adorable and also extremely photogenic, so I'm sure he'll be making guest appearances now and again :)