For our second class, different than our usual classroom, we were supposed to meet by Client Support on the 5th floor of Melville Library to have a tour around the Language Learning Research Center (LLRC). However, due to my own negligence, I failed to check the syllabus and was not aware of this fact. As a result, I was not only late but caused one of my supervisors some trouble. I ended up going to the classroom instead of the prearranged meeting place. After I realized this mistake, I rushed to Client Support immediately, but there was no one. Assuming they went ahead to LLRC, I decided to head there. That was when it hit me: it is hard to know what you truly know. I have had classes held at the LLRC. I was aware of this SincSite, but when I was panicking, it slipped my mind completely, and I led my supervisor on a wild goose chase trying to find this location. Eventually, it came to me, but my supervisor who was running around with me was not happy.
Ironically, part of the class was reserved for the career center orientation, which emphasized the importance of attitude in being professional. Many students hold the carefree attitude in belief of the separation of school and real world. A school has more tolerance for mistakes than the real world. As a result, we are allowed to make mistakes. To a certain extent, mistakes are still acceptable because we are still students. In a way, schools are safe spaces to make mistakes, overcome and grow. However, when working in the real world, one mistake can be fatal and leave you not only momentarily unemployed, but forever blacklisted in the industry depending on how detrimental your mistake may be. Just like my instance was my supervisor, I was lucky that it was an internship class, and not my real job, because that careless mistake might have cost me my job. However, I learned that though it may be more lenient, it does not give us the reason to slack off and take it lightly. I have learned to make use of this safe space, learn from my mistakes and treat all experiences equally.