By Colton Aristone

Try and imagine a slightly smaller, 10-year old me, playing baseball when pitching was first introduced.  Compared to many of my teammates, I was very timid when I began pitching.  All eyes were on me, and my performance could drastically change the game’s result.  When I eventually started to pitch for my team I played few innings and had developed a very odd wind-up.  During a normal windup the pitcher will come to the set position, with their feet close together, and their hands around their stomach or chest area.  In my wonky windup, however, I started with my front foot far off to the side, and my hands swinging below my belt.

Since I never really pitched very much, my coaches didn’t think much of it.  But, as I began to pitch more with little success, my coaches began to comment on how my windup could be altered.  Being the stubborn 10-year-old that I was, I didn’t listen to any of my coaches.  It was almost as if my windup was a sacred ritual that could never be changed.  After about a year of unsuccessful pitching I began to grow angry with my poor performance and decided to listen to my coaches.  Adapting to the new (much more normal) pitching style was awkward at first. My first few weeks with the new style were tough.  I had to reconfigure my muscle memory.  My legs felt like they were out of place.  I felt like a doe attempting to walk for the first time, I fell with my first few steps but eventually learned to walk.

I slowly became more comfortable with my new windup, practicing until it began to feel natural.  I grew to be a more accurate pitcher and went on to continue pitching for my various teams to this day.  I realized that by shielding my work from criticism it ultimately held me back as pitcher and stopped me from reaching my full potential.  That is how I developed the belief that ideas should be put through harsh criticism to force change and improvement.

To fully understand the concept of my belief, I feel that it is important to define what criticism is, and who it can come from.  As far as what criticism is, I would define it as any sort of differing opinion someone else has about my (or anyone’s) ideas.  I believe that criticism can come from two groups of people. The first group is any person who agrees with me, and is critiquing my work to improve it or provide a different perspective.  The second is a person who disagrees with me completely, and is trying to disprove my work. Simply put, criticism can be used to either adapt my ideas, or disprove them completely.

Criticism coming from someone who shares my viewpoint is a great starting point when learning how to receive criticism.  Not to mention it helps me view things from a different perspective which can help catch holes in my logic.  Let’s look back to the baseball example, pitching is like throwing my opinion out in the open for others to critique.  The people who share my viewpoint are like a pitching coach, they teach me how to throw pitches like a curveball that are harder to hit.  A curveball is a strong and well thought out opinion, it is extremely hard to hit (or rebut) by any opposing hitter I will face in my life.  By exposing myself to this constructive criticism first, it also helped me become used to receiving critiques which is important for when I get older and the criticism is harsher.

Criticism coming from someone who opposes my viewpoint was daunting at first, I can still remember how scared I was for my first presentation in my grade 6 science class.  These types of criticisms often come up in debates where you are forced to pick apart your opponent’s points.  I have never really been much of a debater but there were times in grade 9 civics where the opponent (most often Dr. Lambersky) would completely change my mind on an issue due to the irrefutable points they made.  It is through this type of criticism that I have come to realize, if my opinion is so fragile that it has to be shielded from all altering opinions or risk falling apart, then it is too weak to believe in.

Once again, these types of criticism relate back to the baseball analogy. The types of people opposing my view are the batter trying to hit my opinions out of the park.  With the strong pitches I learned from my ‘pitching coaches’ I can minimise the chance of being hit.  There is no way to completely reduce the chance of being hit, but when I am, it should be welcomed and not ignored.  You might argue “well isn’t hitting the ball out of the park a bad thing?”, but you would be wrong, sometimes.  Occasionally I need a batter to come up and take me 400 feet deep.  In doing so it forces me to reflect on my current strategies and help me come back and pitch even stronger.

It is important to note that this essay is not saying that every piece of criticism I receive should be followed entirely.  It is extremely important that I maintain my personal opinion while still being open to the ideas from others.  It is especially important to develop this skill more than ever as I approach my adult life and all the inevitable criticism I will face.  By no means am I a perfect example of this belief, but I am striving to be better.  Receiving criticism is a vital skill, you should never hide your ugly windup in fear of embarrassment, but instead display it to the world in the name of improvement.