Perfection: The Thief of Joy

Horseback riding has been one of my favorite hobbies from a young age. However, this doesn’t mean I haven’t experienced setbacks. Getting back on a horse after it just threw me onto the ground is one of the scariest things I have ever done in my life, but I managed to overcome that fear and continue doing the activity I loved.

(Photo by Elizabeth Freeman)

When I was younger, I wanted to be perfect at everything. Every sport I tried, every new instrument I learned, even every homework assignment I completed, I had to be the best. However, I wasn’t naturally gifted at most of these skills, which resulted in a lot of self doubt and frustration. I had to learn how to work through these feelings and try to practice instead of just expecting to be perfect right away.

One of the many sports I tried as a kid was softball. Growing up, I played a new sport almost every year. First it was soccer for a few years, then softball, basketball, tennis, and swim.

(Photo by Tom Freeman)

Along with athletic activities, I also did theater, dance, and horsebacking riding as a child, as well as taking piano and guitar lessons. Through all of the recitals, performances, and competitions, I was always disappointed if I didn’t do as well as I was hoping to. For example, during a piano recital when I was in third grade, I kept hitting the wrong notes and completely messed up the song. I was so frustrated at myself, as I felt that all of my hours of practice and preparation had gone to waste because of that one mistake. Even though I was unhappy, I still pushed through and did a lot better at my next recital. Experiences like this one shaped me as a person, and they taught me that I can still have fun doing an activity even if I don’t always succeed at it.

Dance is one of the few activities I stuck with for a long time, even though I wasn’t good at it. I danced for almost 6 years as a kid and was never able to do the splits like many of the other girls could. This really frustrated me, so I practiced doing the splits almost every day for months, and even though I never was able to nail the splits, that work ethic has stayed with me for many years since.

(Photo by Elizabeth Freeman)

It wasn’t always fun to feel like I wasn’t as good as everyone else at activities when I was a kid. Every time I tried a new sport or activity, I had the expectation that I was going to be great at it right away, even if I had never done it before. As a result, when I inevitably wasn’t amazing at the sport, most of the time I just gave up and tried something else. This resulted in me having a lot of negative feelings towards sports in general, as well as not wanting to commit to any activities at all. Over the years, I have worked through this, but I still struggled to find activities I really loved. By the time I got to middle school, however, I discovered the theater program there, as well as clubs such as FFA, which I joined. I found out that I loved these activities and could be successful in them without having to spend excessive amounts of time stressing and preparing.

At the end of 8th grade, I performed in the middle school musical that year, Matilda. This photo was taken during my solo as Miss Honey, but in the background there is something even more interesting. The letter blocks placed in the back of the stage spell out Matildu, not Matilda, and although some crew and cast members were unhappy about it, the audience hardly noticed, and if anything, it made the show more memorable.

(Photo by Kristina Puntney)

By the time I got to high school, I found an array of clubs and extracurriculars that I was good at and could succeed in. However, other than horseback riding and ski team, I wasn’t really doing any athletic activities. Although sports didn’t come easily to me in my childhood, I missed the feeling of being on a team and improving my abilities. After some convincing from friends, I decided to join the high school swim team this year. In the last month of practices and meets, I have learned so much and met so many new people. In addition, the improvements I’ve made in such a short amount of time are something to be proud of, even if I’m not winning every race.

Most of the sports I tried as a kid didn’t stick for long. However, swimming is one I kept coming back to. After a long break, I joined high school swimming this year, and although I’m not the fastest on the team, I’m improving and learning new things, which I think is far more important than being the best.

(Photo by Glassdoor.com)

In summary, all of these experiences taught me the benefits of not being good at everything. It helped me narrow down my interests and taught me how to work hard on the things I enjoy. Being perfect at everything is unrealistic and trying to achieve that is stressful and unnecessary. As long as you work hard, you will see progress and improvement, which I think is more important in the long run anyway.