Day 27: A talent of yours

Sorry, this post is a day late.  I’ll post 2 today!

I’ve always had a thing about my talents.  I have many talents, but I’ve never really felt like I had something that I am really good at, I mean REALLY good at.  I’ve always secretly hoped that someday I will find a hidden talent that is truly MY talent—something I was born to do.  While I am above average at a lot of things, I wouldn’t call myself an expert in anything.  Don’t think I’m being a downer on myself, because my self-esteem is just fine.  It’s just that I have never really felt like I was the best at anything.  Here are some examples:

I am good at sports.  I played softball when I was young and I ran track in high school.  I was good at both, even above average, but there were always people on my team who were better.

I am a good learner.  I have never had trouble in school.  I always got straight A’s and did well in all subjects.  I love to learn new things and oddly enough, I love taking tests.  But I was never the smartest.

I am creative and artistic.  I can hold my own in most things artsy, but, again, I would never claim to be extremely artistic.

I am a good cook—but mostly because I know how to cook and I research recipes before I try them (read reviews, learn about ingredients, and read tips on cooking methods).  I am no natural born chef or anything like that.

I am musically inclined, in that I can read music and sing on key (most of the time :)  I know how to play the piano and sing harmony, but I need a lot of practice in order to do either very well.

There are a couple small things that I have been pretty close to the best in (out of people I know, at least), but I’m not sure they count as something I was born to do.  I am great at memorizing things.  I am very good at making up things in my head to help me remember other things.  I have always been able to do this.  I was also really good at lesson planning when I taught school.  I came up with great ways to organize my plans and integrated different subjects into my lessons.  That was my favorite part of teaching.  But making the plans and carrying them out are two different things.  I was better at the first part.  I always got compliments on how I did my lesson plans.

So basically, I have a lot of talents, but I guess if I want to be the best at something, I better continue working at it.  I don’t think that natural ability will be enough to take me to the top in any of these areas.  I imagine most people are like me in this way, but sometimes I get bummed out when I see people who are fantastic at something or another and can’t find that parallel in my life.  Anyway, sorry about the super long post that you have just read through.  Its a kind of a therapy/kick in the butt to write it all down.  Maybe now I’ll be motivated to develop some of these talents further!