They say you learn from your mistakes, but why is the mistake always had to be either physically or mentally painful or just straight up embarrassing? Why can’t we just learn without making the mistake?
Well my friend, because you can’t learn about the consequences if one has not yet gone through it. Recently I went to New Zealand; we hired a campervan and drove from Christchurch to Franz Josef which is a 5 to 6 hour drive. We finally arrived at our destination, as my sister went in to check us into the campsite; I decided to stay in the car. When she came back the car would not start up, nor could I take the keys out. So we did the most logical thing two girls would do, and that would be to first freak out. And secondly, ask some lad in the nearby pub for help. Long story short an English lad came out to have a look at the car, I jump into the passenger’s seat to show him the car, and then it clicked, I hadn’t put the car in park. So after this embarrassing daft experience, I decided to take to the internet and found out what other people have done, that taught them a lesson.
1. Never take song lyrics too seriously. Mike Criner.
After a heavy storm I was driving and saw a sign in the road that said “High water, do not enter.” The detour was longer than I wanted to go so I thought about it for awhile. Then I figured the sign was probably just a suggestion anyway. Then I remembered the lyrics to the Led Zeppelin song “Stairway to heaven” where it said “Sometimes words have no meaning.” So that justified to me that the sign really had no meaning. I was wrong about that.
I drove past the sign and my car got flooded out. I had to call a tow truck.
Lesson learned: I learned not to take song lyrics too seriously.
2. Don’t get distracted by beautiful women. Dan Knight.
I sliced the tip of my thumb off whilst chopping peppers because I was distracted by a beautiful woman. I won’t be doing that again.
Lesson learned: Don’t get distracted by beautiful women.
3. God of sexual harassment will strike. Dima Korolev.
I had a bad cut on my finger. I was 16 years-old and using a circular saw to cut timber for shuttering concrete. We were on the top floor and my friend said (as builders did)”Steve look at the tits on her” well I looked (out of politeness) and pow the god of sexual harassment struck me down.
Lesson learned: Don’t treat women like a piece of meat.
4. Your ears are not storage compartments. Michael Borgwardt.
Once as a kid I lost a tooth, and I wanted to keep it but didn’t have anywhere to put it at the moment. So I decided to shove it into my ear. Then I forgot about it. A couple of weeks later I was deaf on one ear and was taken to see an otolaryngologist. He said that he’d pulled a lot of weird stuff out of kids’ ears and noses, but never before a tooth.
Lesson learned: Your ears are not storage compartments!
5. Don’t wear a bikini whilst water skiing. Victoria Darling.
I wore a bikini when I went water skiing. Forgot I’d lost weight. When I went up my bottoms stayed down.
Lessoned learned: Don’t wear a bikini water skiing.
6. Don’t play with snakes. Sagar Sawant.
I held a non poisonous snake in hand thinking it won’t cause any harm… It did bite me and I had an allergic reaction on my hand. I hate snakes.
7. Don’t show off to impress the ladies. Eric DaCosta.
She was the prettiest girl in my language classes. I had an oversized BMX. The road from the place where we had our classes sloped down and turned right. If you missed the turn, you’d hit the compound wall of the local hospital. If you took the turn just right, you’d hit a speed bump and get a decent amount of air.
I was used to getting air and pulling a no hands landing. She was leaving class and as she reached the end of the road I pushed off and headed downhill. It was raining and my brakes were slick. I missed the turn and ran head first into the wall. Chipped teeth, smashed chin, three stitches and a cute scar under my lower lip. She never saw me.
Lesson learned: Don’t show off to impress the ladies.
8. Wear correct shoe size. Cyndi Perlman Fink.
I really bruised my toe last week while I was putting the house back in order after the remodel because I was wearing a pair of shoes that was ½ too small for me.
Lesson learned: Wear correct shoe size.
