6737 Mistakes

I had saved a few blog spots at the end of the year to reflect on my year on a personal level and on behalf of The Smile Project. But as it came time to write, I was finding myself at a loss on the former. Not because it wasn’t a vibrant, full, deliciously generous year, but because I didn’t know how to pull 12 months of living into a neatly packaged blog post. I didn’t know how to simmer my year into a few succinct paragraphs. 

But then I remembered another year-end harbinger—the corporate reviews. Everyone from Spotify to Google was pulling out their version of a “wrapped,” sharing personalized information about listening happenings and searching trends. And, my most frequently used language app—Duolingo—was no different. My Duolingo report reminded me what languages I dabbled in (nine?!); how many minutes I spent learning (a lot); and who my best friend in the app was (spoiler alert—my partner). 

But the slide that stopped me in my tracks was a simple one that said: “You made 6737 mistakes this year.”

Six thousand seven hundred thirty seven mistakes. 

Because I’ve also dabbled in a little Duolingo Math, I reduced. We’re talking nearly 18 and a half mistakes a day?!

When Duolingo moved to the sharable screen for your year in review stats, I couldn’t help but notice they left the mistake count out. 

At first it was nothing but funny. That sure is a lot of mistakes for someone who has noticeably felt her Spanish improving and her German coming back to her. A lot of mistakes for someone who got undeniably better at mental math. A lot of mistakes for someone learning to recognize new alphabets.

And then it became meaningful. 

When looking back on my year, I’m overwhelmed with the good things. The high highs. The simple joys. But if I really dig in, I realize it’s a lot of mistakes that helped me get there.

So what do I want for 2025? I want the opportunity to make 6738 mistakes. I want to be unafraid of failing and of starting over and of stepping outside of my comfort zone. Perhaps struggling with conjugations is a reminder that through every challenge there can be growth. Perhaps we are the luckiest to be able to fail forward for another year.