Learn (something) the hard way/ Live and learn

(Vivendo e aprendendo)

1. When you don’t pay a loan or for your credit card installments by the due date, the bank charges you interest. After a month they start charging interest on the interest. Pretty soon you can land yourself in unmanageable debt. Has that ever happened to you before? We live and learn.

2. Do you generally learn from your own mistakes and do better the next time, or do you keep making the same old mistakes? Sometimes mistakes are unavoidable - but in many such situations I tell myself, “You live and learn“.

3. One day in El Salvador, Central America, I drank water directly from the tap. I was too thirsty to care at the time… but I ended up getting typhoid fever shortly thereafter as a result. Sometimes we have to learn the hard way!

4. Have you ever gotten a traffic fine? If so, what was it for? Have you ever gone the wrong way down a one-way street, talked on your cellphone while driving or any other infraction? Sometimes the only way we learn is when we feel it in the pocket - when we get a hefty fine. We learn the hard way.

5. Not everyone can be trusted and not everyone has good intentions. Unfortunately most of us find this out the hard way.

6. Sometimes we learn more by failing and picking ourselves up and trying again. Often we live and learn through trial and error. Can you remember any lesson you learned the hard way?

7. The only way to really know what an ice-cream headache is like is to eat too much and suffer the consequences. We live and learn!

8. When I first came to Fortaleza, I was not prepared for the strength of the sun and the viciousness of the mosquitoes. I learned the hard way to use sun block and insect repellent.

9. After a month of unregulated use of any service, such as long-distance calls on a cellphone, air conditioning (higher electricity usage), etc., one may be shocked to receive a much higher bill than expected. We can then adjust our habits thereafter. We live and learn.

10. If one does not exercise or have a more-or-less healthy diet, it’s a matter of time before health problems start cropping up. If you don’t drink enough water, that may lead to kidney stones. The lesson is so painful, I am sure, that one will immediately increase their water intake to avoid the same happening in the future. We live and learn.