We all make mistakes. Some of us make many. I make at least one mistake each day just to stay humble and remind myself that even life’s flaws can be beautiful. 

Just kidding, I don’t have to plan for mess-ups—they just come to me naturally. Maybe you make mistakes, too. Just small ones like leaving the house half an hour late because you thought you’d experiment with the “smoke eye” look for the first time and then you miss the streetcar and your boss mistrusts you forever because you’re late and also look like you’ve been in a bar fight. Other times mistakes are a bit more serious: maybe you got a little too drunk on NYE and decided to sing about your partner’s personality flaws to the tune of Les Mis‘s “I Dreamed a Dream” at four in the morning until your neighbours banged on the roof to make you stop. Oops.

If you made a mistake this month, I want to hear about it. It’ll cheer us both up: you can win some great prizes, and I won’t feel like the only dummy in Toronto! Leave your story as a comment below and you could win a SDTC “Gurl, Feel Better About Your Life” gifty! It’s time to complain about something you did wrong and win a prize for it. In exchange for your honesty, I will also share a mistake of the month. Great.

Choosing just one mistake from December was difficult as all of the holiday cheer had me buzzing in a whacky, overly emotional way, but I’ve got it narrowed down to a general, befitting theme: gifting.

  1. Boyfriend’s birthday: We said, “No gifts,” this year, so I had to buy something last-minute because what is a BDay without a BDGift? After a few hours of pondering I decided to buy him a record that, OH WOW, he already owned. Even worse, I was WITH HIM when he bought it not but a few months ago. He was nice about it, but the birthday was blown. Also I kind of whined about feeling bad until it got weird.

  2. In-law gifts: Following the “no gift” rule, we went off to Montreal to visit my partner’s sister, brother, and his girlfriend empty-handed just before Christmas. I think the “no gift” rule is a trap for everyone. Of course they had tonnes of gifts for us. To open in front of them. And of course they are wonderful people who didn’t care that we literally gave them nothing. And of course I kept muttering about how they were way too generous and that we were so sorry not to have brought anything, making it more and more awkward until finally they said, “Oh, okay, we don’t have to do gifts next year, sorry.” Making people apologize for giving you presents Lisa, great job.

  3. Christmas day: My dad bought me a bright orange purse from Roots and instead of saying, “Thank you, Dad!” like a normal, grateful child-woman, I said, “OH, WOW, THAT’S SO BRIGHT AND NOT REALLY ME, HEY?” like a big ol’ dill-weed. Then I came back from Boxing Day shopping with a fluorescent top from Forever21. It only cost four dollars but also maybe my dignity?

So WHOOPS, there goes December! What goofs did you make? Leave a comment below or tweet us your December mistake—there might be a prize in it for you! And at the very least you can let it all go…and just breathe. For really real though, everybody messes up, and unless you come to terms with your mistakes, they’re just going to weigh you down until you drown in guilt, debt, or anxiety. HERE’S TO BETTER MISTAKES IN 2013!

~ Lisa Amerongen