Hi, and thanks for checking out my page! You might remember an earlier blog of mine where I wrote about the importance of organization. Well, I’m back to give you an update. After our parent-teacher conferences this fall, I’ve been super focused on making sure I’m on top of my homework and quizzes—particularly for math and science. (Those were the two classes I hadn’t had great reports on.) I haven’t missed a math or science assignment yet, and my test scores have all gone up. Unfortunately, I may have lost focus on being organized in a few other areas. One of those areas is my locker. Boy, was it messy.
As you can imagine, the school day is pretty hectic. You only have five minutes in between classes to grab your materials and get to where you’re going. And once the bell rings at the end of the school day, who wants to stick around later than they have to? As a result, my locker got pretty out of control. If you’ve known me long enough (which my loyal readers do!), I’m sure you can guess that something bad happened to me. This time around, I threw away something I shouldn’t have, and I couldn’t get it back. But as you also know from reading my blogs, I learned an important life lesson from the experience: when a mistake happens, look for ways to reduce or limit further negative consequences. Instead, focus on how you might be able to fix things. Or at least minimize the effects of your error. The important thing is to take action rather than hiding from or wallowing in what went wrong.
So let me tell you the story about my heaved homework…
It’s all Greek to me
Chinese, as hard a language as it is, has been my best subject all year. I don’t know if it’s because Chinese is so interesting to me, or perhaps it’s because I’ve gotten pretty good at learning the main characters. Whatever the case may be, I’m doing really well in it. Also, my teacher, Ms. Q, is super nice and tries to make sure all her students succeed.
Needless to say, I’ve been on top of my game when it comes to Chinese. But the other day, my locker kind of exploded on me. Not an explosion like “kapow,” more like an explosion of papers, rubber bands, pencils, and even a couple of water bottles that I thought I’d lost. So, yeah, my locker was a little too messy.
Since it was the end of school and I had to get to track practice, I opted for a quick cleanup. I gathered up all the crumpled papers, broken rubber bands, old pencils—plus whatever random things I’d shoved into the locker—and tossed them in the trash. I barely made it to track practice on time, but at least my locker was a bit tidier.
But later that night, when I was looking for my Chinese homework, I realized that I’d made a mistake. A horrible mistake. One that I couldn’t undo.
At a loss
I knew I had finished my Chinese homework in study hall earlier that day. But I couldn’t find the completed worksheet anywhere. I checked the bottom of my backpack (again, discovering more papers, rubber bands, and eraser-less pencils. Why do I save them?). I then went back and checked my binder—including all the pockets where my Chinese homework wouldn’t be. I even looked on the floor under my bed, just in case maybe the paper somehow fell out from my frantic searching. Nothing. Or, “nòng diū le,” which I think is what you’d say in Chinese.
Ack! What do I do? I tried to get in touch with Ms. Q. Maybe she could send me another copy of the worksheet, and I could just redo my work. Having already completed the homework, it should be easier the second time around, right? I waited an hour for her to respond, but Ms. Q didn’t write back. Even though it was long after the school day was over, how could Ms. Q not respond? Aren’t teachers always thinking about school?
Given my not-so-great parent-teacher conferences from earlier this year, if I could help it, I’d rather my parents didn’t know that I messed up again. So, I went to ask my big sister, Jill, for some advice.
“What should I do, Jill? Ms. Q hasn’t written me back, so I can’t submit my homework. I’ll just have to skip turning it in, right?” Since I couldn’t find my heaved homework, there wasn’t really anything else I could do. Well no. Not according to Jill.
Face the music
“First of all, Noodle, you can’t just give up so easily. Is there any place the homework might be listed? What about other kids in the class? Can you ask them? What if you went in to talk to the teacher before school? Or during study hall? Or lunch?” Jill sure had a lot of ideas. Even though I’d asked for her help, Jill’s suggestions required some extra effort. And I wasn’t sure if I wanted to put that effort in. So, I came up with some more excuses.
“But I’m not really close friends with anyone in the class. Wouldn’t that be weird for me to contact them? And I have no idea where Ms. Q might be during the day. She’s not always sitting at her desk. At least I don’t think so.” Ugh! I was kind of hoping Jill would just say, “You’re right, you can’t turn in the homework, and that’s that. I guess now the rest of your night will be free.” (OK, fine, I still had to practice piano.) Jill wasn’t having it.
“If you aren’t going to turn your homework in on time,” Jill said, “You should at least show your teacher that you tried to complete it; so you can say ‘I did x,y, and z things,’ even if you weren’t successful. Not to be rude, Noodle, but not doing anything to fix your mistake is kind of a lazy excuse.” Darn my sister for giving me such tough advice. But between you and me, Jill wasn’t wrong.
I’d need to get over being uncomfortable if there was any hope of tracking down a copy of my heaved homework.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again
Even though I was embarrassed, I tried getting in touch with a few of the classmates I was kind of friendly with. Just my luck—and not the good kind—none of them got back to me immediately. It was nearly time for bed. It didn’t seem like there was any way to undo my heaved homework mistake.
But at least I’d tried to fix things. And hey, maybe Ms. Q would arrive at school tomorrow at exactly the same time as me. Then, I could casually speak to her about my heaved homework. OK, fine. I know that is the least likely scenario. But there was always hope that Ms. Q might be understanding when I saw her later in class.
As soon as I got to class the next day, I explained what had happened. Then I told Ms. Q all the things I had done to try and track down a copy of my heaved homework.
“As long as they don’t become regular habits, I understand that accidents happen,” Ms. Q said. Whether it was because I was a good student or because Ms. Q appreciated my efforts to undo my mistake, or maybe both, I’ll never know. What I do know is that Ms. Q was nice enough to give me another copy of the homework and some extra time to complete it. This time I didn’t heave it. In fact, I got nearly a perfect score.
I also asked my mom for five folders to store my homework—one for each of my major subjects. That way, I’d never have the problem of heaved homework again.
Now, as for organizing my room…well, since I know I don’t have any missing homework lying around, I think I’ll just wait to tidy it up another day.
Until next time, be your best you.
Do you have any stories about learning an important lesson from an experience? Please share with them me in the comments section!
