“JH English Monthly Writing Competitions – Steve Li

 

Huili JH English Department are continuing to hold their monthly writing competitions. Our second competition was a personal narrative writing competition titled ‘Oops,’ where students had to write about a mistake they made and what they learned from it. Please listen to Steve Li from G7C have a brief interview with Mr. Speers and share his wonderful story which earned him First Place!

 

First Place Article Below;

 

Whoops…

By Steve Li

 

Have you ever made a mistake that created loads of embarrassment and made you cringe? Did you panic under pressure? Was it solved? These questions may as well remind you of agitating, discomforting and problematic oversights that you have made in the past, however I believe that the assumptions that people have on mistakes are wrong. I think that mistakes are the foundations of success; furthermore, as the saying goes, “Mistakes help you learn!” Now, let’s introduce my three steps to learn from a mistake method! This works in mainly 3 steps. Firstly, you need to recognize and identify your mistake. Secondly, you need to be self-confident to admit your mistake. And lastly, you must be courageous about making changes to avoid making it again. With all this being said, let’s explore a mistake that I made just today!

“Ahh, how tiring!” I whispered underneath my breath. I jumped onto the soft, cozy and navy-blue sofa like an exhausted beast. I just came back from an energy-draining jog. I searched around the coffee table for the TV remote and clicked the “ON” button. Furthermore, I flipped through the different channels; despite the first few programs being boring, nevertheless I continued to go through the channels.

Then suddenly, “Boom chakalaka” I thought to myself, “I’ve got it, there it is!” I have found the documentary that I desperately craved to watch. On the TV, the documentarist is walking through a wynd (FUN FACT: Wynd is a word, try searching it on dictionary.com!) in New York City. However, all of a sudden, there was a “Ding”.

Not knowing was going to come, I grabbed my phone out of my pocket, and it displayed a WeChat notification. I clicked on the notification and after a quick Face ID scan, I was in. The WeChat APP opened and on the very top of my list of contacts is my violin teacher. I tapped on her profile photo, then my blood ran cold. There was supposed to be an additional violin lesson today and I have completely forgot about it! “What should I do?” I panicked and nearly lost my marbles.

“Although this was an extremely silly mistake,” I thought to myself, “I shouldn’t cry over spilled milk.” Then I immediately remembered my three steps method to learn from a mistake. So, firstly I need to identify my mistake which is forgetting violin class. Secondly, I am supposed to admit my mistake, so I sent an apologies text to my violin teacher to explain why I was late, how awfully sorry I was for failing to remember my additional violin class, and how I will never let that happen again. Last but not least, I must do something to avoid making the mistake again. Therefore, I decided to make reminders in my calendar APP on my phone to remind me for lessons and other important tasks.

In the end, my violin teacher has forgiven me for forgetting the lesson, since it was just an unusual accident, and the apologies letter showed how desperately sorry I was. How do you feel about the way I have solved the problems my mistake has caused? And do you think the changes I have made is going to be effective? I think my 3 steps to learn from a mistake is . So maybe next time you made a mistake, try my 3 steps to learn from a mistake method! And I wish you can feel less guilty and more confident in facing mistakes, get out of any trouble and most importantly make a change!

 

You could be on featured on Dukebox in the future too if you participate in our writing competitions! Our competition this month is “Celebrating Spring Festival Through Poetry”

 

 

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