To Those Who Can't Stop Messing Up
To the ones who can’t stop messing up,
I get it. Thousands of dollars are spent to provide us with the privilege of tip top education yet once we walk across the graduation stage we find ourselves facing the ultimate test: the real world. Will we fail? Will we pass with flying colors? While some of us rack up another A+, others have to come to terms with red pen marks all over the paper. Growing up my dad would always say, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” To be honest, I always heard the words but I never allowed myself to actually hear them. I called my brother this past weekend to talk to him about the words that rolled off my father’s tongue for as long as I can remember.
Cameron answered the phone, “Hey Chel!”
“Buddy – what do you think daddy meant by his teacher saying?”
With a tone full of confidence and with reason my 23-year-old brother said, “It means you won’t be able to learn until you put yourself in the position and have the perspective to do so. The teacher could be there but the student could be blind to it. If the student isn’t ready the teacher won’t appear.”
We spend precious time and wasted energy trying to hold it all together. We fall victim to society and the pressure of “figuring it all out.” But why? For what? For who?
Cue the silver lining: You have permission to mess up. You have the right to remain silent and you also have the right to not hold all the answers, yet. You are not an alien if you’re the last single one standing and you are not failing yourself if you don’t know what you want to be when you grow up. There is no rule book. So beyond the law of buckling your seat belt while in a moving vehicle the sooner you realize there is no blinking sign over your head saying what your twenties should look like is the moment you’ll start living your life. Live in the moment. Live it. Right here. Right now. If you hate your job, leave it. If your boyfriend doesn’t worship the ground you walk on, leave him. If your girlfriend is a lunatic, leave her. If your apartment is caving in, get off your ass and look for a new one. Set yourself up for success. Success by failure. Success by trial and error. Success by hard work. Set yourself up to be the student because there is no greater lesson then that of life and hands on experience. Leave the text books in your past and prepare yourself for invaluable lessons one could never learn in a classroom.
Are you ready? The teacher is waiting.
