But that's not the lesson I want to impart to you guys today. The lesson I want to talk about is... well, something that we Americans cringe at. The F word.
Nope. Nobody likes that little word. We're all taught that failure is a bad thing. Quitting is prohibited. And only losers do both. Well- let me tell you, in regards to Ceramics - I'm a really big loser. You see, apparently I'm just not big enough to center clay on a pottery wheel. If you don't have your clay centered -you can't make anything.
Now, usually I don't let my size get the best of me. Sure, at 4'10'' and 83lbs I'm pretty tiny. But I don't let that control my life. I reach for the stepladder, climb all over to get things I can't reach, and shop in the kid's section for converse [it's $40 cheaper, why not?]. But there are two things I've discovered that are impossible to have when you're my size.
One is a good pair of non-tailored jeans.
The other is hand-thrown cups you made yourself.
Now, neither of these are the end of the world- but they are, in a sense, little failures because I've tried to find jeans, and I've tried over and over again to make pretty cups. But I can't. I'm too small.
And it's just a fact of life. There will be things I can't do that I fail at when I try. High-level math is another example. For some reason... numbers and my brain just don't mix. Don't ask me about Algebra, I don't know squat.
But I think we need to stop looking at what we can't do as a bad thing. Failure is an option-
Don't be afraid to fail.
You see, if I hadn't spent all that time in a pottery class I was doomed to fail- I might never have decided that I actually really enjoyed just sculpting clay and I would never have learned to be patient with it. And if I hadn't spent all that time trying to find a good pair of jeans then I wouldn't have figured out that you can, actually, get them tailored for free at JC Penny.
You don't learn anything from success when it's your success. But you do learn from failure. People learn from failure every day.
The first rough draft of a novel is always going to be just one big epic fail. There's no way around that. But we don't look at it that way, do we? No! It's a rough draft. There's a reason why I call them 'dump drafts'. But dump drafts teach us to power through, they teach us that characters evolve, that plotlines do too- and that beautiful things happen out of really big messes. Seventh Sparrow, right now, is one big sloppy mess. But it's turning into something utterly fabulous. And the characters grow so much through my epic fails as I try and sort through my rough draft.
So we, too, might even go so far as to label our entire being as one big epic fail. Maybe we've never dated, maybe we don't think we're good enough for whatever we've been called to do. Maybe we're not as good a writer as we'd like to be. Or maybe our life isn't working out the way we think it's supposed to- or the way everyone else tells us it's supposed to. Maybe we're struggling with depression or a really busy life, or any amount of stress. Maybe we completely blew that last job interview- or that art piece didn't turn out right- or we said something really, really, really dumb.
Maybe we think we're an epic fail.
But guess what? That's ok.
People are wonderful in the fact that they have an entire lifetime to live, to grow, and evolve. You might be a terrible rough draft, a lump of clay, or a misfit pair of jeans now - but think of what beautiful sculpture, or riveting novel, or gorgeous creation you're going to be later.
Failure takes a lot more work than success. Success does not demand that you master your emotions, work hard and learn from it. Failure does.
As C.S. Lewis said- "Experience is a hard teacher - but you learn. My god, do you learn."
So the next time you have an epic fail just breathe.
It's going to be okay.
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