jerrylee@writingsamurai.

com

Topic: A Careless Mistake

Pictures given: pills, construction site, ambulance

I unfurled the blueprint for the final time and gave it a once-over before rolling
it up lifelessly. I was an architect. My job was to design buildings. At first, I took pride
in my task, but I soon felt disgruntled by my low pay and high workload. My boss
would constantly remind me to check my measurements in case I made a careless
mistake as it could affect the whole development process. However, I turned a deaf
ear to his words.

It was another ordinary day, and I was at the construction site, going through
the motions. As usual, I skimmed through the papers rather than did a detailed check,
as I was pretty confident in my skills. It was time-consuming and tedious to check the
whole thing over and over again.

Suddenly, my phone rang and I immediately answered the call. While rattling
off instructions, I noticed I was still holding the blueprints. Absent-mindedly, I rolled
the blueprint up, walked over to the crane and gave the workers a thumbs-up sign,
indicating that they could start building the next storey. The hooks of the crane slowly
descended to pick the big slabs of concrete off the floor.

As I watched the vehicles rumble across the rugged terrain and I appraised
our work in progress, I thought that it was actually quite impressive and I felt proud.
Soon, almost the whole room had been tiled, but when they attempted to slot the last
piece in, it did not fit. Imagine my embarrassment when the workers came to me,
gesticulating in annoyance. I was appalled. This was the first time something like this
had happened. I stood rooted to the spot. It took me a few seconds to snap out of my
daze. Sheepishly, I admitted that I might have overlooked some details and
promised to settle the problem. My face turned beetroot red as I gestured for the
crane to take the piece back to the ground.
 jerrylee@writingsamurai.com

My embarrassment soon turned to anger at my own incompetence. I stormed

over to my desk and consulted the blueprint again, almost tearing the paper in the
process. I quickly found the section for that particular room and checked carefully. To
my horror, I discovered that I had indeed made a mistake in the size of the tiles
needed!

My mistake was actually just a simple calculation error, but since the tiles had
to be ordered from an overseas company, it delayed our progress for a few weeks.
We had to get more concrete slabs as well because the ones we had were
incompatible with the size of tiles.

My boss soon heard of my careless mistake and I was summoned to his office.
With my head hung low, I promised him that it would never happen again. Since it
was my first time committing such an error, he let me off the hook. I heaved a sigh of
relief as I had thought that he would take away my bonus.

From that day onward, I would check my work carefully to avoid any more
careless mistakes. Fortunately, the building was finished just before the deadline, so
I had not gotten into further trouble. That day had taught me a valuable lesson, which
is to always be vigilant and attentive, and to not treat my job as a chore.

Darren, P6