Everyone Makes Mistakes

You’re lying if you say you’ve never made a mistake in your life. Everyone does. Some mistakes in life are minor and can be easily forgiven, but there are also major mistakes that can change not only that person’s life but also the people around them. These mistakes can ruin lives and things may end up never being the same. But does one mistake ruin someone’s life?

One mistake doesn’t ruin someone’s life; it is usually a combination of minor mistakes leading up to a major mistakes. You only get so many chances and free passes in life. I think of the saying “count your blessings” because I heard it used a lot growing up. When I think of that saying it reminds me that I am blessed to have all the things that I have and that my parents worked hard to provide the best life possible for me. Then I think about the fact that one major mistake could have changed everything. I am lucky to have the life that I have, but others aren’t as lucky. Parents make mistakes and that affects their children more than it affects them. If these mistakes continue to add up, the children can be affected drastically and it could affect them for their entire lives.

Think of how lucky you are to not be in the public eye when you make mistakes. Professional sports players, actors and singers are constantly in the public eye and any mistake they make can affect their fan-base and sometimes even affect their whole career. Think of NFL quarterback Michael Vick and the dog fighting scandal. He was put in jail and lost a huge chunk out of his fan base, but eventually he returned to football. Vick isn’t all bad, he just made a mistake and had bad judgment. That one mistake shouldn’t ruin a career, and it didn’t in Vick’s case but it definitely affected it a lot. Still to this day people despise Michael Vick for what he did in his past, but that is the nature of humans I guess.

Speaking of the nature of humans brings me back to the fact that everyone makes mistakes. Every single human being makes mistakes no matter who they are. Mistakes are a part of life. They teach us lessons and make us the people that we are. Mistakes lead to building character and lead to life lessons that we can pass on to our children.

Mistakes are necessary and they’re normal. When someone makes a mistake, don’t be so quick to forgive. Make them earn their forgiveness. That is the only way that they will truly learn the whole lesson from their mistake. At the same time, forgiveness is important in life too. If you don’t forgive you’re can’t move on. You’re always stuck on the fact that “so in so did this” and you miss out on the amazing person that you aren’t forgiving. Forgive when you’re ready to forgive, but work towards forgiving because it is important to living a full life.

Think about it, if you never forgave people for their mistakes where would you be in life? Say your significant other lied to you and you never forgave them. How could that relationship progress if you don’t forgive them? The answer to that is it can’t. Sure it may take a little while to build your trust back up, but you have to forgive if you really want your relationship to move forward.

That being said, I know I’m being repetitive but I have to say again that every human makes mistakes. No one in this world is perfect and we weren’t made to be perfect. Making mistakes is part of life. I will leave you with this last thought; it isn’t the mistakes that you make that matter, it is how you learn from those mistakes.

-Eric Proulx