Level Two. Doing it right.

Level Two. Doing it right.

By Michelle Lloyd.

Doing it right or rather getting it right could be tough. Mistakes were a part of many people’s lives. This was a fact that had been heard, noted but not concurred with by a certain Little Herbert.

Little Herbert had heard that mistakes could be a part of life, but in himself, he knew truly that this was an idea for other people. Little Herbert did not do much that offended, upset or angered anyone. It was his aim to not cause a fuss and that had usually gone well up to the point of one very motivating mistake.

One morning Little Herbert’s dad asked him to wait for him while he finished getting ready and then he would take him to school. It had been a simple task.  Little Herbert began it well and not a problem had there been in sight. Little Herbert’s dad went off and Little Herbert waited as he had been told to do.

He waited, waited and WAITED. As the minutes ticked by so did Little Herbert’s wandering thoughts and notice did he the left over mess from where his dad had previously been sitting and sorting through his to do notes. He had been told not to touch his dad’s notes when he was not there but Little Herbert could not help but think how useful he could be in tidying them up for him. It would only take him a few minutes and as he had to wait, he could do something that was a use of his time, something he had also been told was a positive thing to do. He thought about it hard and he could not see any potential problem with his plan. He got up, went over and started to tidy.

Tidy went he with the first note, on he went to the second and before he knew it, the entire pile had been well…tidied. It had been a doddle, a well performed task and as he heard his dad coming, Little Herbert moved too quickly and the notes that had been so well tidied went tumbling to the floor.

It was a terrible twist of events and Little Herbert found himself scurrying about trying to gather all the notes before his dad got to him. He found the first, second and third with no problem at all but as he went along he could hear his dad approaching and faster he went to get all the notes that he could. He knew how much his dad trusted those notes to do anything. He did not like to use a planner and favoured instead his own method of note taking, it was how he went from task to task and even though people joked about his dad and the dreaded notes, they were a part of how he noted what he needed to do in his day.

As his dad got nearer to him Little Herbert found that he was missing one of the notes and so in a minute of panic he threw all the notes into his satchel. He knew that if his dad found one of the notes missing then he could suspect him of having touched them and so he decided they were all safer in his satchel. His dad got to him and off they went to school.

All day Little Herbert worried about those notes sitting in his satchel. At school he could not concentrate and made mistake after mistake in class. Answers wrong, friendly chats ignored and teacher’s talks misheard were all a part of what Little Herbert had to endure. Home seemed far off to Little Herbert and every time he thought about how his dad would discover that his notes were not there waiting for him it made him feel terrible.

At the end of the day Little Herbert felt a bit of relief and reluctance to see his dad. Would he mention the notes to him? Had he noticed the notes not being there? What would happen? These were but a few of the questions that had tormented him. Little Herbert had asked himself why he had even gone near the notes at least ten times in that day.

When Little Herbert’s dad saw him he smiled and together they started their journey home. Nothing was said about the notes. Little Herbert had thought he had maybe gotten away with the whole mistake of a notes tidying incident when his dad asked him about his day. What could he do but do something he really did not like and pretend that it had been an all right day for him, he could hardly talk about all the torment he had endured because of the mistake he had made. That was when Little Herbert’s dad told him about what a terrible day he had because he could not find his notes, on he went about how much of a mess he had been in and into his ordeal he went in great detail and as he talked a certain someone felt worse and worse by the minute.

Not a word said he and in the end Little Herbert’s dad looked at him with a knowing glance. He came out and confronted the issue by asking if Little Herbert had touched his notes. He had to say it. Having confessed Little Herbert was relieved that his dad cuddled him and said that it was all right but had he told him about his mistake then everything would have been far less worse for them both. Little Herbert was advised by him that the phrase he had learnt about applied to him as much as anyone else because a mistake was not the issue that could cause the most disruption, often it was how one tried to learn and resolve what had happened that could mean success or failure.

Little Herbert had to concur that if he had told his dad about the notes, then a little mistake would not have turned into a terrible day for them both and that maybe he should have applied that well known phrase to himself, as well as everyone else.