Servillican
AP Lang. & Comp.
10 October 2012 “Learn from your mistakes.” A saying that is heard quite often. It’s said to children who have committed their first mistake, embedding it in their minds from an early age that it’s okay to make a mistake. As one grows older that same saying is repeated as many times as needed. When one is a child it is encouraged to learn from the mistakes made, but for an adult or adolescents at times, making any type of mistake become prohibited. In the passage of Medusa and the Snail, Lewis Thomas states that mistakes are needed in one’s life, and furthermore that they are “lucky.” Thomas’ first claim goes completely against society’s idea of perfection without mistakes along the way. Living a life with no mistakes, only a direct way to success is not right. In this passage Lewis Thomas states that “We are built to make mistakes, coded for error.” Implying that as hard as an individual might try, there is no way to get passed a mistake, but to overcome it. As stated before as young children many are told to accept mistakes and embrace them. Growing up with a Hispanic background, Spanish was my first language. I didn’t begin to learn English until I entered school. I was lost and confused most of the time, making mistakes every day of school. I made a mistake early morning when I first entered the classroom and had no idea what I was being told to do. I made mistakes as we read, stuttering as I struggled to sound out the words. I made many mistakes, and I was merely five years old. With encouragement from my teacher, who made it clear to me that “Everyone makes mistakes, and it’s okay.” I got passed those mistakes and made it to the top of my class.
Many people believe that mistakes are bad, in a literal way they are, but when further evaluated it is acknowledged that without mistakes being made, the progress that is needed to be made is at a standstill. Thomas states that “wrong choices have to be made as