Petty Mistakes and Their Accumulation

Brittany Liebenow
Blog Entry 1: Free Response Entry
10 January, 2010
Petty Mistakes and Their Accumulation

One of the petty mistakes people make that I hate most is when someone says something with haste that he/she doesn’t mean. Or doesn’t understand. I do it; we all do. Making this mistake is essentially inevitable, but it can be avoided in most extreme cases and situations. Everybody blurts out little things without thinking when scrambling around trying to finish a million things at once. When potentially hurtful things are said under circumstances like these, the hurtful things are easily forgiven and usually not as potent. An important thing to remember is that, even though these things might have been said without intention, these things still were said. The words were spoken and perceived. The damage was done, and the feelings were hurt.

This being said, when careless things are written, e-mailed, or texted to someone, the results, and reactions, usually are a bit more explosive. The difference between things written and things spoken, despite the fact that both might have used the same amount of time and care, is that things written are more permanent, more pliable, and easier to fix. When something is translated from the signals in your brain into words that, in order to be understood, must contain specific characters, it is usually universally understood that more effort and thought were put into said written item. This is why things like this have longer lasting damage and are harder to forgive.

Of course, isolated incidents also mean less than those with a history of consistency. Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone should be given chances. Benefit-of-the-doubt chance, real second chance, last chance, really-the-last chance—where does it end? After a while, the repetitions spell out only one clear message: the repeat offender really does not care enough to chance his/her ways.

The things that really hurt the most in general are the things that happen to be the final straw. When people snap, it is usually not because the shock of one single event is enough to cause a person to crack. Of course, when traumatic things happen, a single event is more than enough. I am speaking of the everyday fights and the seemingly random outbursts of anger and frustration.

The little things, and the medium things, in life have a way of accumulating in destructive ways. Other than little things said without a care, little mistakes and bumps in life also accumulate. That cup of coffee you dropped on your new pair of pants, that multiple choice question you bubbled in incorrectly, that ten dollar bill you somehow lost—all of these things aren’t really that bad when isolated and examined. They become devastating when all combined into a short time period, say 2 days, and mixed with relationship problems, difficulties with a friend, or a misunderstanding at work. This mixture of unfortunate events creates a ticking time bomb. Maybe a careless text message or rude comment could set it off.

In the end, the petty mistakes that people make are not necessarily deserving of an explosion or “talk,” but most of the time these mistakes are what end up setting off the alarm in a lot of peoples’ hectic lives. The lesson from these mistakes is to always watch what you say or you might be in for a treat if you happen to be the final push over the edge.