Whoopsie at the Post Office

I went to the Post Office today, and noticed this evidence of someone's "little whoopsie".



Looks like someone hit the gas instead of the brakes when pulling into that parking space. I'm not making fun, really. I've done that very thing myself. Once, I pulled up onto the curb at a Burger King instead of stopping neatly in the parking spot as I intended to. I was actually so shaken up by it (when I realized I could really have hurt people if I had gone much further, i.e. through the windows and into the dining room) that I cried nearly hysterically for several minutes. Then, when I tried to compose myself, taking off my glasses to wipe the tears off the lenses, I was still shaking so badly that I snapped my glasses in half! Oh, and did I mention that I worked at this Burger King and had been driving myself in for my shift, so I had to go in and spend hours there after this happened, with people who saw it happen and were all teenagers (like me) and therefore not terribly compassionate about it? So in addition to the comments about my less-than-stellar driving skills, I had to endure nerd comments since my glasses were taped together. Why are teenagers so unkind to one another? If there were one thing I wish I could teach every teenager in this world, it would be that you will not only most likely survive your adolescent years, you will also probably realize one day that most of what happened during this time turned out to be irrelevant in the grand scheme of things (aka the rest of your life).

Okay, I'm done waxing eloquent (or whatever that was!) about adolescence now. :)

Hope you are driving safely and not having too many whoopsies, wherever you are...

Cut yourself some slack for your whoopsies, though. Remember the most important thing I learned in first grade (well, I learned this when I was student teaching first grade; I don't actually remember anything that happened when I was six years old and in first grade myself): "Human beings make mistakes." Yep, all of them. The teacher, Ann Wasson, actually had that exact phrase posted in the classroom and talked to the kids about it often. Simple but so true, and good to remember once in a while, especially after making a mistake yourself. Thanks, Mrs. Wasson...of all the things I learned from you, this one has served me best and ministered to me most. And I bet many of "our kids" would say the same.