Big Wheels Keep on TURNIN

“Time is like a wheel, and we are just mud on the side of the road, while it goes by” (Natalie Babbitt).
I have always valued learning; but like any prideful student, I have difficulty accepting mistakes I make in an academic area. Coping with failure can be draining, but life, like a wheel, continues to move right along. In the grand scheme of life, forgetting how to calculate the probability of ‘Event A’ happening, given that ‘Event B’ happens for the Thursday math test is not the pivotal moment of existence. The world will sustain its gradual turn, despite the fact that the abominable answer scribbled down in a panic was, in short, wrong.
This school year, Aurora High School adopted a new policy with turning in assignments. A student must submit a hard copy of the assignment on the day it was due, and then promptly submit it to turnitin.com, a website that checks for plagiarism. If a student fails to submit their work to the program, their grade is unceremoniously downgraded to a zero. Unfortunately, I became overwhelmed one week, and the deadline for turnitin.com passed by. I collected my thoughts days later, and abruptly realized my mind lapse.
Although I campaigned against this policy, it did not bear the fruit I desired, and my poor grade remained, which left me, and my report card, devastated. After moping for a day or so, I received a pick-me-up by a classmate while sitting in German class. He passed along the desk an old worksheet upon which he scrawled his words of wisdom (naturally, all in German). He pointed out that life was too short to worry about what happened in the past. Living in Aurora, the opportunities are endless, and we have so much to be grateful for. We are not living somewhere where our lives are in danger upon walking outside, or where we have to go and work to help the welfare of our families. In retrospect, a poor quarter grade should be the least of our worries because we can bounce back from anything.
I stared at his words, and remembered Winnie and Mr. Tuck’s conversation within the pages of Tuck Everlasting. The wheel of the world will continually move, whether the people in it have braced themselves or not. I took a deep breath in my seat, and prepared to move on with life.