I'm fascinated by some things that have come up in my life recently. There's a pretty cliche idea about how you should learn from your mistakes, but no one talks about how to avoid making mistakes in the first place. Don't get me wrong, there's some good reason to make mistakes, since sometimes it takes standing in the coals to figure out how (or how not) to do something. I'm pretty much the poster child of learning the hard way. Remember how your parents always told you not to stick things in the electrical sockets? Yeah, I still stuck bobby pins in and ended up having my mom pull me off because I couldn't let go. Trust me, I never made that mistake again, but obviously, that could have been avoided.
So, here's the idea: try learning from your friends and family's mistakes. Another example on how I'm going to try this out comes from just some day to day stuff. I was working the other day, and decided to go and practice for an hour. A friend I haven't seen in forever texts me, asking if I'm up to anything because they're in town and has some time to go get coffee. Since I was bike-commuting, I requested that they come to me because it would be faster, meanwhile putting my horn away (I got a warm up in first, so not a total loss) and running up to get on my bike to get to the coffee place. I get in, order my drink, then sit down at a nice table. They keep updating me with calls and texts, and I'm told that the Fremont bridge had gone up, delaying them for a while. Then, fifteen minutes later, I get a call and my friend tells me that they really need to run back and pick up their friend that they were hanging out with, drop them off somewhere, then they'll come back to have coffee. Another half-hour passes and I start to get frustrated because it feels like I'm being blown off. I call up James to tell him what's up, and just to find someone to talk to since there wasn't much to do in the shop anyway. Then I get the text:
Hey, it's just not going to work out today. Sorry.
Oh, I was so angry...I can't even describe how angry I was. James got to hear the lovely rant I had, mostly about how sick I was of people just taking my time and wasting it because all they could think about was their own schedule, their own lives, and not having consideration for the others around them.
Life lessons from this situation: be punctual...or call if you're not being punctual. The other person could use your lateness to get stuff done rather than just sitting around waiting.
Next, don't try to just stick someone into your schedule. I think that was the most hurtful part of this situation. I was just smashed into an apparently full schedule, so therefore I was the first thing to go when the schedule was starting to fall apart.
Third, don't tell someone you're not going to show up by text. By God, you had better at least call. Texting is super convenient, and a fast way to tell someone some information, but if you're standing them up, it's so un-kosher, it's not even funny.
So, all three of these things are going to be pieces of information that I keep in mind so that none of my friends will deal with the same stuff I have (or hopefully they won't). I'm not trying to be self-righteous, I know I'm going to screw up...I already have so much with my friends. But if I start working to learn not just from my mistakes, but also from others', then maybe I'll end up being a better friend than if I just concentrated on my own mistakes.
Moving into the update part of my blog (since I figure that's why most of you are here), Baxter hates his splint, so my day is full of amusing him so that he stops chewing it off. Baxter's a dog, for those of you who just thought that I'm friends with one very odd child.
I finally got scheduled to have a lesson tomorrow, which is exciting. Hopefully I'll keep moving forward in my playing. I know that an hour a day isn't where I was during the school year, but I can still see improvement happening, and this actually is the first summer where I'm actively practicing.
Swimming and biking is continuing, and I can feel my body getting whipped into shape, which is a very different feeling than my usually soft muscles. I can't wait to see how my arms and legs look at the end of this summer :D
I hope everyone is having a great summer and goes out to enjoy some sun (take sunscreen!) :)
Allie
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