I wanna be Ms. Frizzle

Picture this... 

 

You're standing in front of a crowd of people, and you were assigned to give a speech. This is your first time. Your hands are sweaty, your chest heavy, and you're wondering if you practiced the speech you wrote enough times to memorize everything right. 

You begin, fumbling along the speech, but you get through it, until your closing words, which you get completely backwards!

It's too late though because you messed up and now you're mentally calculating the quickest exit out. 

Then, surprise of surprises the crowd roars in applause. "Congrats on the misstake! You'll do better next time! Great job messing up!" No judgement, only encouragement. 

It's beautiful isn't it? Unfortunately, you're not likely to see it happen. 

  I think about the many times I've cried over the sorry state of my world. People don't understand each other, and few truly make the effort to do so. There is constant fighting over ego. Everyone wants to be on top, when I always thought that the world was round. Everything in a circle so that no one is on top, some may be closer to one side of the circle than others, and so they are wiser more capable. Yet essentially we're all the same. All on even playing grounds. We're all here to learn!

Understanding Regret

  I have solemnly sworn to have no regrets. It's a goal I am working on. To let go of the past and step into the future. Yet it is a tricky endeavor if I keep pounding into myself. Thats why I joined the 31 day self love challenge, so I can learn how to reprogram the way I think. It's got me thinking though on what I want to teach and why.

  I want to teach people how to not regret. To recognize mistakes as an opportunity to learn instead of a punch to the ego. Only if we let go of ego can we find happiness. I truly believe we are all meant to find it. If only we believe. 

  Celebrate mistakes! Throw a friggin party, enjoy that you messed up and now you know how NOT to approach a situation. Doesn't it make sense that we are born without instructions so we can't get everything right at first? Once upon a time we were toddlers. We said words incorrectly until we were corrected and finally understood the correction, or we listened to the words enough time to make the corrections ourselves. We learned to crawl and to walk under the same principle and that is this. Keep going, keep moving forward, learn from the mistake and you wont have to repeat it!  If you look at it this way there are no regrets.

Ms. Frizzle

  Depending what generation you're coming from you might understand my analogy. However, for those that don't know about my idol teacher, I'll explain.  Ms. Frizzle is a fictional character in a series called "The Magic School Bus" which was a television series and also a series of childrens books. Ms. Frizzle was a classroom teacher who also happened to have her own magic. Whenever there was a problem needing solving or a concept needing to be learned she'd call for a field trip on her magical bus. The class went to prehistoric times, inside the body, into the ocean etc. What I absolutely love about Ms. Frizzle was that whenever someone did something incorrectly she would chime "Thats it! Take chances and make mistakes".  Ms. Frizzle was a sage of the classroom. She understood that through error can we make connections and learn what works. There is never only one correct way to do something. 

  I want to be Ms. Frizzle. I want to teach the value of a mistake and encourage retrying. I sincerely hope the rest of the world follows suit. In the coming times of mass communication and global education it is high time to approach education in a way that promotes the diverse population of students. We are all students in life and when you stop learning you stop living. Lets stop beating up ourselves and each other for screw ups. Can't we? 

Take chances! Make mistakes! By all means, live.