Young 10-year-old Charlotte looks at the oven, wishing the timer would go off soon. She just prepared a cake all by herself, for the first time. When the timer finally rings, she jumps out of her chair and runs excitedly to call her older sister, Tauri, to help her take the cake out of the oven.

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However, as Tauri puts it on the table, Charlotte starts to cry: her cake does not look like the picture of the recipe. She followed all the instructions to the letter, so why her cake does not look as good, and is burnt on top? Her sister immediately hugs her and explains to her that when we make something for the first time, it is normal for things not to be perfect: “You know, even if your cake is not very presentable, that does not mean it is not good. It reminds me of the first time I helped a friend make a pièce montée. My friend, who loves to bake, wanted to challenge herself by trying to make a pièce montée, a cake that is difficult to make. We spent a lot of time making the recipe and not all the steps were easy to follow. However, the end result was not very presentable; the choux did not really form a pyramid. But it did not matter, because in the end the choux à la crème were very good, and we had a lot of fun making this cake.”

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After listening to this story, Charlotte thinks that maybe her cake is not so bad after all. She has to taste it to at least know whether it is good or not. The two sisters eat a piece of the cake and realize that it is actually very good. Charlotte smiles:  

“I understand, it is not possible to get everything right the first time, and the most important thing is to learn from my mistakes”.

 

“Exactly”, says Tauri, “the most important thing is to make progress, not to get it right the first time. It is like going to one of your training sessions for synchronized swimming”. Charlotte agrees: “When I go to my training sessions, I make a little more progress each time, so that the ballet I will perform with the other swimmers at the end-of-year competition is the best it can be. It is true that the first time I do the ballet it is not perfect at all, but that does not matter because I will be working on it all year.” “In the end”, says Tauri, “I know you will succeed in everything you undertake, and you will always make me proud”.

 

That brings back the memory of the birth of her little sister. When Tauri saw Charlotte for the first time, she told herself that she would always be there to accompany her and help her succeed in whatever she did.