Art can be frustrating. So can life. In both, we make mistakes that are inevitable. There is one lesson that is learned in art, but not celebrated in life: how to transform mistakes into a part of the masterpiece. This picture is a reminder of art's greatest lesson.

Like most kids, I've been in art classes since preschool. As I continued through elementary and middle school, however, I learned the greatest lesson of being a human. Sometimes, I would find that an eraser or a damp sponge wasn't enough to fix the mistakes that I made. My teachers would encourage me to find a way to let it work with the end piece, the ultimate reminder of being a human. Throughout the years, I have been so humbled by my art.

When I was working on my portfolio, I was interested in incorporating my love of water into my photographs. So I experimented and had my friend get in the pool for some water shots. I loved the colors in the pool and the contrast between the rich blues and skin tones. During the first picture, I saw the flash go off, but I didn't go through to delete the picture because my friend was holding her breath under water.

I took a number of photos with different poses and we were done. As I looked through the pictures later, I couldn't stop looking back at the picture with the flash. I deleted others, and the final picture I was left with was that with the flash. I was so glad that I didn't delete it. It took me back to my younger days because it reminded me that sometimes what I thought was a mistake would actually turn into the greatest aspect — a lesson that is so completely human!

For this reason, I think art should be required in schools because it can become so much more later in life. Art can only be as perfect as humans are, and I realize that we often lose our sense of imperfection. Mistakes are important and I think people are often too pressured to be perfect when it is absolutely impossible to do so. People will never be happy until they realize this and can remind themselves of this lesson when life goes awry. Because of art, I can see that mistakes are unavoidable and can actually be turned into the most beautiful lessons in life.