Yesterday was my second day volunteering at our local pottery shop with the lovely lady who runs it, Connie. It was a very long day – I got there at 10 in the morning and although I was there for a good few hours, I only got one job done: sticking eyes to little fox heads using slip, a mixture of clay and water.
Granted, there were tons and tons of these that needed doing. I spent the entire morning doing them and they looked very neat and Connie and I were both perfectly satisfied. But then Connie left for her lunch break, and just as she was leaving she checked the foxes were good to go. To my horror, the eyes completely fell off one of them. She assured me it was fine, mistakes happen, etc., but then the eyes came off the next, and the next! Almost every single one of those silly little foxes didn’t have their eyes glued on properly. I was so annoyed at myself, but I resolved to redo them all while she was gone. That was a bit of an unreachable goal, but I did get them done that afternoon before I went home.
I think I learnt yesterday how to learn from mistakes and not get too frustrated. Connie says experiential learning is the best kind. (I hope she’s right, or all those 6 hours will be for nothing. 😉)