Recently, in the middle of a busy weekday, a good friend of mine called about an error she had made. She works for a magazine, and one of her tasks is to create informative social media posts of their articles. A typo on one of the slides resulted in a lively discussion in the comment section amongst highly amused viewers. Of course, I went on my Insta right away to see it for myself. It was hilarious; I did laugh, and it was a relatively minor mistake, so it didn’t do much damage.
Truthfully, when I received the call, I was not having a great day. I was closed up between the narrow walls of my thesis topic, wrapped up in the multiple tabs I had open, which contained facts I was trying to wrestle into a section. Since I enjoy writing, I expected to thrive during the thesis writing process. But it really hasn’t been the smooth ride that I expected.
I’m frustrated by my mistakes and really question my abilities
I find myself constantly falling short of the standard I’ve come to expect from myself and what I think is expected at the university level. I’m frustrated by my mistakes and really question my abilities. I was stuck in my dark, mean tunnel, impatient to get to the end where the lightbulb goes off, and I finally figure out why I keep getting stuck. Her call reminded me that humans err. It’s what we do. And being able to unexpectedly laugh out loud turned my entire outlook around.
Suddenly, the sun shone through the dark tunnel and placed the pieces into perspective. Yes, I’m stumbling quite a bit, and it’s far from what I expected. But why was I expecting perfection in the first place? Even my favourite things are not picture-perfect. I remember trying to pull off a birthday surprise or my first attempt at making barely drinkable chai, but my brother drank anyway. There’s a spot in our living room that is messy no matter how many times you tidy it up, but it takes on a delicious student-house aesthetic when sunlight illuminates it.
It was refreshing to be reminded that our imperfections are human
It was refreshing to be reminded that our imperfections are human. The comments to my friend’s post were full of good-humoured teasing as if, for a moment, we were reminded – and relieved – to connect with another imperfect human on a platform that encourages us to hide away our mistakes.
Ananya Doraswamy is a Master’s student in Communication, Health and Life Sciences from India. She delights in a slow-paced day that has plenty of time for cloud-watching and tree-gazing. She enjoys being in busy, multicultural kitchens that have plenty of food and stories to offer.
