The Art of Paper Hearts

It takes a combination of perfection, patience, matching corners, and running fingernails along neatly folded paper edges to create a work of origami. The repetition is soothing, the same movements over and over until the pattern is burned into my brain and my fingers perform the task on command. I practice valley folds, mountain folds, and square folds until they are perfect. By the time the sun sets, I am surrounded by a multitude of butterflies, foxes, frogs, and cranes. Nowadays, I find myself only occasionally reaching for my almost rusted scissors in a desperate attempt to salvage a mangled paper square.

I often find myself lost in the art of origami. When I am folding, everything else fades away. Time is but a thing of the past and all of my worries seep from my pores with each new paper creature. I am a perfectionist, so the time and energy it takes to create a flawless work of origami can be hours. As the school year started again, I have found that creating the perfect origami structure has helped me care less about other imperfections in my life. Scoring less than a hundred on tests, quizzes, and projects does not irritate me as it has in the past. By putting all of my perfectionist tendencies into my art, I am able to move past and accept my mistakes. Before, asking a teacher to look over what I deemed my failures scared me more than anything, now I relish going over assignments to correct my errors.

Over time, I have learned to cherish the flawed outcomes. While I may not display them openly on desktops or hang them from my ceiling, I remember my crinkly foxes and smushed cranes fondly. They are examples of my perseverance. When I have received a less than optimal grade; when I cannot master a new crochet stitch; when I am unable to find the right wording for a new story, I pull out my box of origami rejects. I compare the discarded pieces with my favorites to remind myself that it takes time and practice to improve. I know that for every mistake and failure, the time put in to correct it will benefit me tenfold in the future.

I am fascinated with being able to make something as complex as a lily from something as simple as a 4x4inch square of paper. I want to share the complex beauty of origami with others. I have wanted to be a teacher since I was eight years old and showing my younger brother how to make mud pies. It was sloppy and messy and by the end we were covered in grass blades and dirt, but I loved it. My dream is to one day be a teacher and I plan to use my knowledge of origami to help my students understand the valuable lessons of patience and perseverance. I hope to be able to help my fellow perfectionists overcome their desire to be perfect and focus on their accomplishments. Folding origami is a wonderful way to achieve this. While it can be challenging to find appropriate tutorials, I often search through multiple videos before I find one that teaches the skill adequately; it is worth the struggle. Through teaching my future students how to fold paper frogs, they will not only learn a new skill but the life lessons that come with it. That it is okay not to pick things up first try and that only through making mistakes can one improve. This knowledge can be applied to both botched creases and missed quiz questions. Failure is only an opportunity to learn more.

Origami has given me insight into the world I never would have gotten otherwise. In an attempt to stave off the never-ending boredom of quarantine, I opened a YouTube link on how to fold paper hearts and learned a new skill that has become vital to my life. Not only does the repetition of folding calm me, but it has helped me grow as a person, a student, and a prospective teacher in ways I never would have imagined.