Dream as though you’ve never failed.

This quote has followed me for over a decade. I heard it in Grade 9 (when Jonathan Howard came to visit a local elementary school). I used it as my yearbook quote in Grade 12. It is currently in my room on my letter board! I’ve reflected on it many times over the years, and at first I didn’t see much wrong with it — but there is a slight flaw, so let me explain. You see, the quote can be taken as this idea of pretending you’ve never failed, and thus means you aren’t learning from your mistakes. I do believe it’s important to learn from mistakes, absolutely! … But how I’ve chosen to look at this is not about forgetting your failures, but rather keeping that courage in order to follow your dreams. I know how tempting it is to want to quit when you try and try and continue to struggle — I’ll use my writing as an example: I’ve given up and come back to it many times since I was 13! I do tend to fix my past mistakes, and I believe my writing process improves every time I come back to it, but my confidence was always on the lower side (more-so when I was a teenager; I’ve gotten more confident in my 20s). I need to remind myself about this quote constantly — fix my mistakes, move on and continue to dream with confidence.