Growing up I remember an old Reba McEntire music video about her being a working mom who was going back to school. Huey Lewis played her husband in it, but that’s not relevant to my point at the moment. Anyway, the video shows her studying and working hard and getting really stressed and mad at her kids when something is spilled on an important paper. You could tell she felt bad about the yelling. She turns it in, stains and all (well before the days of the home computer and being able to just print out another copy). At the end the professor comments something to the fact that she did a good job but to try to avoid the stains next time. Reba’s character at that point remarks,
“I learned more from the stains than I did the paper.”
As I’ve grown up that line has always stuck with me. Even in our most unhappy, unlucky, unpleasant or un-what-you-had-planned-out-in-your-head moments we can find our greatest learning opportunities.
Some of my unluckiest moments have been BIG and out there. Moments that everybody saw. Moments that made me want crawl under a rock. The ones that make you feel like you’re about to throw up or that you just want to be invisible. Facing the music can be the hardest lesson to learn.
Like the time I was making an events calendar for the library where I worked and instead of typing “food pantries,” I typed “food panties.” You know what?! Spell check sees those as perfectly acceptable because they are both REAL WORDS! How unlucky, and extremely embarrassing, that I made the mistake of not carefully reading over the calendar before I made 200 copies. I learned my face could go many shades of pink and red. And I absolutely learned to double and triple check my documents.
This is not the most unlucky moment I have experienced. Trust me. Not by a long shot. This just happens to be one of the funnier ones. Along with the time in college I forgot where I parked my truck and reported it stolen. I learned to slow down and think back before running ahead. You can imagine the obvious lesson learned from falling on the dance floor due to the ignorant combination of four inch heels and too much champagne. Thankfully I missed the eight year old and the drum set. Yes, that moment wasn’t pretty. But my shoes sure were.
I feel it sometimes takes these shocking blunt-object-to-the-head moments for us to really learn a lesson. How boring would life be if everything were always easy and obvious? And my past transgressions always seem to be a great comfort to others when they find themselves in an unlucky spot. I can pat them on the shoulder. Look them in the eye and say, “Hey, at least it wasn’t food panties.”
What are some of your unlucky learning moments?
Jeanetta is a crocheter and coffee addict, chicken keeper and goat wrangler, a farmer girl and maker of drunk jellies. You can find her online at www.jeanettadarley.com or on twitter, pinterest & instagram @jeanettadarley.