One night during a wedding ceremony, I stumbled upon a henna artist who was decorating the bride’s hands with incredibly mesmerizing designs of henna. After the henna paste had dried and crumbled off, the stunning crimson red stain of the design left me with an overwhelming feeling of love and appreciation for the body art. It was that night I decided that I wanted to be a henna artist as well, and I began to transform something I found beautiful into a craft that enabled me to pursue my artistic potential. However, I wasn’t very good at first. I became so obsessed with perfection that I would wash off an entire hand of henna because of one tiny mistake. This obsession with perfection drained my passion and turned this hobby I so badly wanted to enjoy into a chore. I knew I had to give up this perfectionist attitude of mine if I wanted to stay sane. I still continued to practice henna until my lines became straighter, my curves became smoother and my hands became steadier. However, my designs were never perfect. I still made mistakes. But it was when I incorporated those mistakes into the design and made them a part of the art that I felt like a skilled artist. We so often let our mistakes blind us more seeing a solution. We overlook all of our accomplishment because of one failure. Henna became more than just a passion, it taught me to utilize my mistakes and turn them into opportunities to create something even better. Henna guided me to my real, a real that is full of beautiful mistakes.
