Do we REALLY need to make a mistake to learn a "LESSON" ?

I remember my mom always advising me and me always rebelling. MY most favorite one liner at the end of many heated discussions or arguments would be “Its my life mom; let me make my own mistakes”.  To my dismay, I found out most of the time that she had been right all along...

Why is it that we are so hell bent on making our own mistakes...? I think it's just an excuse to just do what we want at the end of the day... At least that’s what I think when I look back now. When I think of how much pain and regret I could have saved myself  and not to forget the buckets of tears and sleepless nights… It seems senseless that I wouldn’t listen to good advice.
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I remember the day...when I decided that I am not going to follow the, “learn from my own mistake” policy. It was just one of those days... when we girls just hung out... let loose…did girly stuff and just bitched away to glory…but that day was different. I had found out my friend had been hit by her boyfriend. I don’t want to go into the reason why her boyfriend hit her simply because a reason is given as a justification for an action...And to me there is simply no justification for violence. It not only causes physical pain .. its also invokes the feeling of fear , humiliation and helplessness .When I asked her what in gods name is she still doing with the guy… she said “I dont know..I just love him... ”.
THAT’S when it struck me… I am never ever going to make the mistake of tolerating violence… I never want to understand.
She finally broke up with the guy… after tolerating 3 years of emotional and physical abuse. By then college was over… it was time to go our separate ways. I remember her telling me in the last few months we spent together," I wish I could have spend my college days like a normal teenage girl…I missed out on so much fun".  But nothing is going to bring back those lost years… or erase painful memories. Some of us choose to learn from her experience others just went head and decided they are going to learn things the hard way.  Every experience leaves a mark on you, be it good or bad.  That’s why our moms and dads are so protective of us… trying to save us as much as they can from sadness and pain. Years have taught them… made them wiser… they only wish to give us a heads up on life…

Doing things your way, taking chances and learning from your mistakes are very important, but I feel we can do it in a more sensible way. We needn’t always learn for our own mistakes always… we can also choose to learn from the mistakes of others. That’s why we have fables… we read them as children, to learn a few lessons of life... Life is full of such stories that we can learn from , stories that you may come across in the form of a book or told to you by someone…or just some incident you happened to witness.

 Since we have one life… and youth is just a short phase of life, we can spend some more time enjoying it, if we act more wisely.

 "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."

                                                                                                                          -Eleanor Roosevelt

My mom told me..." no matter what you write.. people will never learn until they make mistakes..." Despite my moms wise advise...I still want to try.. There is always HOPE.