Throughout the many years of my life I have made plenty of mistakes that I wish I could change.

Last Spring, during a baseball game, I was in the outfield in left field. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was big and blazing out behind home plate. Then my coach yells out, “move back there is a big hitter up!” So, I do so. Next, the pitcher on my team pitches a fast ball right across the plate. I hear the unmistakable sound of the ball smacking against the metal bat. I immediately look straight up into the sky looking for the ball. But the sun is shining directly in my eyes. I thought to myself, I can’t see the ball I won’t be able to catch the ball. Suddenly, I am very nervous, my heart starts beating rapidly and my stomach starts twisting. I squint up into the sky to hopefully have the smallest possibility of catching a glimpse of the ball. But, the sun’s intensely bright rays flooded into my eyes burning them. I lift my glove up in an attempt to shade my eyes and catch the ball. My fellow teammates were yelling directions to me but all I heard were muffled words. When the ball came closer I was able to finally able to see it! I leapt out, with my glove arm extended; I landed hard onto my stomach. I felt the rough grass scrape across my stomach but I was too late! I wasn’t close enough. I heard the ball smack the ground with a dull thud. I scramble to pick up the ball and throw it, with all my might, to the shortstop. I felt terrible! I was very angry with myself! I thought about how I could have caught that ball. Right there I thought, why me? Why did the sun have to be shining directly in my eyes right at that moment?

Whenever I make a mistake I wonder why me? I miss a catch in baseball. I think, why me? I make a careless mistake on a test, why me? If I don’t know the correct action to do or say I think to myself, why me? Why do all of these mistakes happen to me at that certain time and place?

I still remember a mistake I made in kindergarten. I had accidently knocked over a classmate’s block tower. So, I said I was sorry and I walked away. But the student immediately screamed out to my teacher that I knocked over his tower “on purpose”. My teacher strolls up to me and asked, “Matthew did you do that on purpose or my accident?” I didn’t understand the difference between “on purpose” or “by accident” back in kindergarten. I was embarrassed to tell my teacher that I didn’t understand her question. So, I just took a guess and said, “I did it on purpose.” I was a quiet child and a tiny bit scared of my teacher so I didn’t tell her that I made a mistake and it really was an accident. I remember that she took away my recess that day. I was fuming with anger. I learned the difference of “on purpose” and “by accident” that day. I never made that mistake again.

The mistakes I hate the most are the ones I make in school. If I make a careless mistake on a math test it just makes me feel horrible. Especially when I think I did well on a math test and I get the test back and it is riddled with careless errors and I get a terrible grade because of it. Sometimes, I will be all excited to get a math test back and it turns out I did awful, it just gets me down. Some other mistakes happen when I procrastinate. I find that I will procrastinate when I just don’t feel like I’m functioning normally. I get a horrid feeling in the pit of my stomach when I feel that I am not going to do well on a paper or a project so I avoid doing it until the last minute. I have learned that it’s best to ask for help when I start procrastinating. This happened once with a science report. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do on the report. I kept avoiding working on the project. I finally called some classmates and they helped me with what topics I needed to write on. I worked on the paper until 1:00 a.m. the day before the paper was due. I was very tired the next day. I don’t want that to happen again. I will try not to procrastinate in the future and remember to ask for help sooner.

Some other mistakes I have made involve my family. I have made a ton of mistakes with my family. But after I make that mistake I can try to fix it the next time it happens. One time my little brother was being completely annoying. I usually will ask him repeatedly to stop bothering me. I was frustrated with him that day and just hit him without any warning. I hurt his leg and I hurt my hand and I got in big trouble with my parents. I learned that it is important not to hit and try to talk to my brother instead. So, now I try to tell my brother to stop when he is being annoying. I try to explain to him why he is making me upset. I try not to get as furious at him. I also try not to hit him anymore. Sometimes when we are angry with each other we will still fight but I try not to hit him so I don’t get into trouble.

Even though making mistakes can be a horrible thing in your mind, it isn’t as horrible in reality. In reality, a mistake is something that needs to be changed or fixed. In reality, a mistake is an exceptional thing to do. In reality, mistakes help you exceed the next time the same situation comes up. It is something that I learned from. In reality, mistakes are a normal part of life.