I’ve written a million things about the struggle in the learning. I have watched JFK’s Moon Speech with students. I’ve even hung posters that said “There is great learning in the struggle.”
Ironic.
Because when it comes to a struggle that I am in the midst of, I hate it. I despise when I can’t figure something out. Now, the quiet struggle of finding an answer to building something challenging, I’ll take it. But the big internal struggle when you are learning things with moving parts and to get the whole thing moving, you must fail. Fail. Try. And fail some more.
And it’s hard.
Not like, ‘ouch I stubbed my toe’ hard. But like, ‘man, I gotta walk away for a bit and come back to this.’ Like, ‘my brain feels stretched.’ But you’re all in, invested, and you will figure it out.
Whoever said, “Mistakes are proof that you’re trying,” was secretly wishing they’d never make a mistake. In fact, they probably thought by saying it out loud, they’d feel more comfortable making mistakes.
But, that’s a lie.
Learning, as it turns out, is extremely uncomfortable. Get over it. Embrace it. Despise it. Laugh at it. Admit it. Talk about it. Talk through it. Move past it. Learning is hard. It feels impossible. It’s riddled with mistakes and trials.
But if it wasn’t? It wouldn’t be learning at all.
