The Power of Trying - Bits and Bytes #2

       From childhood till now, I have never took up anything seriously. I pick a hobby randomly and practice it until I either achieve something or till I fail, the latter being the majority! Once I fail, I used to give up completely, never trying to do it again. I never believed in the power of trying. I was reckless and it showed in the work I did. But there was an incident that changed my view.

       I used to go for summer camps every year and once I had been to drawing class, probably in class 5. I thoroughly enjoyed sketching. It came to me naturally and I used to bring home beautiful sketches (well as beautiful as a class 5 student could!) and my mother used to beam with pride. My sir used to praise me and I used to bask in it completely.

       Everything was fine until I was made to hold a brush and try my hand at painting. You would think I aced in it as well but no; I was terrible at it! I used to spoil every sketch as soon as I tried to paint on it. This went on and I was growing frustrated increasingly! One day I was scolded by my sir for not paying attention and that was it. I had stopped going to classes! I know it was very stupid but I hadn't understood it then! At that time, I dropped out of the camp and no matter of convincing could make me go back.

       I had completely given up sketching until class 11 where I had to draw in my Biology record. Interest grew once again and I kept on drawing even in my spare time. I joined for the same drawing class once again and started honing my skills. It felt heavenly, to do something I loved so dearly. "It's time you learn painting. Colors speak so much more than these grey sketches" said my sir. I denied till I could but finally had to give in. It was difficult and as expected, my paintings turned bad. "Try" he used to say every time my face fell.

        There was one painting I loved very much, something I had seen a girl do. I wanted to try it but I knew I couldn't do it. Sir saw the dream in my eyes and he gave me the painting and said "You have 4 days until next class. You can try if you want to. You never know what you can do until you try!" I took it home and I don't know how many papers I tore until I finally managed to do it. Here is how it turned out at last.

       It's pretty good isn't it? No, I am not boasting. You will understand it yourself if you see my first try of the same. Here it is

       That is how I learnt that giving up was easy but it did no good. If I had tried this hard all those years back, I would have probably learnt a lot by now. Well, I guess its better late than never. So next time you encounter a failure, just remember, it indeed is a small step in the way of success and as they say "Keep on trying until you succeed" :)

Until the next post,

Keep Smiling :)

Love,

Swathi :)