[✧] NOBODY SHARES THEIR FAILURES!

These days, I’ve seen several videos on TikTok of people crocheting and showing their first works, and the first thing I thought was, "No fcking way."

It's totally valid that you've practiced the basics for hours and hours, had the patience of a saint to make and redo mistakes in your first piece, and then—bam!—a huge dress made entirely of simple stitches? Nailed it, queen. But all I could think was, "My first project was a HORRIBLE bookmark with a flower on the end that had NO possible fix at ANY STITCH." And that's okay! People have different learning speeds. Personally, I didn't have the patience to practice the basics first and then dedicate myself to something well-made. I crocheted several mini frogs with one eye bigger than the other and different coasters that didn’t know how to end in a slip stitch, so they just stopped at a certain point.

What do I mean by all this? I didn't show any of it to anyone on the internet. Why would I? It’s not a cultural habit—we’re not used to showing our mistakes. Of course, I only posted when I finally got into college or when I aced a paper. I didn’t show the teachers' corrections. No one talks about the day they didn’t get into the course of their dreams or or when they failed an important exam.

Don’t compare yourself to people on the internet. It’s all about a good angle, a great filter, and a good day in a not-so-good week. There are three hundred and sixty-five days in a year—are you really going to let a few videos of people showing their happiness make you doubt your own journey? You’ve had your own moments of joy and sadness, and yet, you kept standing, kept going day after day. It’s unfair, to say the least, to compare your unique story to someone else's completely different one. Tell me—has doing this ever helped you in any way?

I thought this should be my first blog, a letter to myself and to all the people who do the same stupid things I find myself doing sometimes. As Chilli Heeler said in an amazing episode of Bluey, "Run your own race."

Thanks for reading! :)