MISTAKES
I hit a milestone.
I have reached Nirvana, a landmark, arrived. Or something.
Enough people pay attention to what I am doing that on a regular basis I get private messages, texts and emails about all the mistakes I made/make. HA!
So something occurred to me after I made the 104,004,023rd grammar/spelling mistake in a Facebook post and was corrected (this time publicly for the record):
People really have trouble with the idea of a mistake.
And some people must let you know you have screwed up. again.
So let me preface this with I love you, thank you, I know you mean well and are truly only trying to help. I really do get that. I’m writing this because I’m tired of responding to said messages.
As a life long practitioner of “msitakes” (yes I actually misspelled that accidentally and left if for emphasis), and at 47 years of age, I find even the most sincerely meant unsolicited correction truly annoying. (Just ask my mom…LOL)
So, as if I actually need to explain myself, I am actually going to explain a few things. And stay with me, I have a bigger point.
1. I am legit dyslexic.
I have been my whole life. I didn’t learn to read well until the end of 3rd grade. I was in special reading groups for “slow kids” until the end of that year. But then I caught up before 4th grade, picking up whatever book I could find, including The Hobbit and Atlas Shrugged. I also wanted to be the first woman president. We are still waiting for that glass ceiling to be broken.
Spelling and phonics, never became my thing. I just had to do the best I could. I did not have “spell check” then. It barely helps now, but it is certainly helping me write this post. Because every 10th word or so I have typed incorrectly.
As a kid this meant a couple of things: I was dependent on help from others (my family) and the dictionary was one of my best friends. Except sometimes even that huge book didn’t help because if you can’t even sound a word out, you can’t figure out where to start. Refer to first point: my mother, grandmother, grandfather, and sisters all helped me with my homework. A certain sister may or may not have written substantial parts of papers for me. I did the research and told her what I was trying to say. She put it onto the paper.
I was lucky.
Everyone has something that is hard for them. It’s okay. We learn to cope.
2. I don’t care if I screw up.
I know that is not popular.
That is not the big point.
And I am not asking for sympathy.
3. I have an aggressive phone.
Which will make no sense to you unless you get this, because you deal with it, too. Iphone X auto prediction and auto correction is aggressive AF and the processor is so quick that even when I have a word spelled correctly and/or the word I want, my phone changes it. And I don’t catch it. Even when I reread before I post. Here is why: my brain over looks those mistakes because that is what it’s like for me with dyslexia. I switch letters and words. all the time.
Here is my bigger point:
MAKING MISTAKES IS OKAY
Say it with me: “It’s okay to screw up”. Say it one more time.
Mistakes are how you learn. (Even grammar and spelling mistakes.) MISTAKES ARE OKAY.
I don’t know about you, but I actually make mistakes all day long. I mean like one every few minutes. Sometimes seconds.
And I see all of my mistakes. Sooner or later. Most of my mistakes are in private. Most of my mistakes are while I am working. I don’t share all my mistakes and try not to even talk about them. At least the little and mid-sized ones, because I make them and move on from those little mistakes as best I can. Immediately. They are frustrating. I cuss all the damn day because of all the mistakes. I incorrectly measure a bezel. I solder something just a little off. I melt something, accidentally. I crack a stone. I think I have an earring back attached, and then it falls off in the tumbler. I incorrectly measure a ring length. I over heat everything I touch with my torch. And I can’t spell for shit.
But guess the fuck what.
This is what makes my work so great!! making mistakes always and everyday.
This is what makes me ME. This is what makes me awesome.
It did take me a few decades to recognize this and truly appreciate it.
NOT-PERFECTNESS is me. It is my work. It is what makes my work mine.
And then it becomes yours, so you can appreciate all the little details of perfectly unperfect. (Here is one more for the grammar police, I am not naming names, Gwen-I do know how to spell that word correctly, LOL. Check the button below.)
For me, that is actually what making jewelry is all about. And I learned early on that mistakes are part of life. We cope. We move on. We keep making them. Sometimes we even keep our mistakes. Sometimes we end up loving those mistakes.
BUY YOURS PERFECTLY IMPERFECT HERE
