Experiential Education

If I could have learned
By other’s mistakes,
And thereby avoided
Making them myself,
Wouldn’t life have been
Infinitely easier.
I could have skimmed
Through without
All the bumps and bruises,
Minus most of
The pain and suffering
That characterized
Much of the life
I ended up living,
But that was never
The path I followed.
I had to learn life’s lessons
By trial and error,
And trust that it would
All work out in the end.
More often then not,
The error of my ways
Was only discovered later,
A gift of hindsight.
It took bulldog determination,
A bit of faith
And a certain fearlessness
That I could eventually
Right any wrongs made,
For me to forge ahead.
Nothing came easy
For I was stubborn
And maybe a little slow
To absorb the lessons
Experience needed
To teach me.
Once I sunk my teeth
Into something,
I was reluctant
To let it go.
And here I am
Later on in life
With all this wisdom gained
From wrong turns made,
Wishing I could pass it on,
But everyone else I meet
Seems to be enrolled
In my alma mater.