Thanksgiving Countdown, Day 15: Renaissance Woman?

I'm grateful for my talents.

I sing!

Some of them are of the more obvious variety. I sing, I play the piano, I can act, and I do ballroom dance.

I'm a strong reader, a good swimmer, and an adequate writer.

I'm pretty good at buying gifts for people, I'm not bad at hair and makeup, and I take decent pictures.

In some ways, I'm a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. That was my biggest problem in college, when I didn't get into the major I wanted. I'm fairly good at a lot of things, but I only excel at a few. So I had no idea what to major in when my first choice fell through.

I swim!

It probably doesn't help that a lot of my talents are fairly useless.

For example. I'm pretty good at making up ridiculous songs, right on the spot. I was playing Werewolf with some of my Young Women back in October, and they decided the setting of the game should be in a musical. As the narrator, that meant I had to sing everything. I definitely didn't keep it up well for the entire game, but for the first ten to fifteen minutes, I was coming up with impromptu songs left and right. And they even had actual melodies! And the words rhymed!

I do nasally New York-based accents!

I've also got a good ear for accents, and I'm not bad at mimicking them. I also have a bit of a gift for doing lots of different kinds of voices, like a voice-over actor or an audiobook narrator (which, coincidentally, are both things I've actually done. But not since I was in middle school and living in London) (Also, both of those things would be absolute dream jobs for me, not even kidding). Evie loves it when I read out loud to her, because my characters all have their own, distinct voices and accents. Are the accents super legit? Maybe not. But they're not too shabby.

I do crazy makeup!

I also have a mind like a steel trap when it comes to movie quotes. I can plug them into all kinds of random situations throughout the day. Too often the response is a dumbfounded look from the people nearby, but I do it anyway. I'm actually not sure I can help it. My husband and daughter are the same way, so really, it's not a habit I'll be breaking anytime soon.

BUT, if you look at these talents I have... really, what good are they? Yes, I can be a fairly entertaining person as a result of these quirky "talents," but they're not exactly important life skills. I doubt I'll ever find myself in a life-or-death situation where a movie quote or an impromptu song and dance can save a life.

Well, unless the Goblin King ever steals my brother, and I need to remember the line, "You have no power over me," in order to get him back.

I take way too many pictures!

Seriously, Jennifer Connolly, it's not that hard a line to remember.

Even though my talents are a bit useless, they still make life awfully fun. I mean, I could have a really useful talent, like being a natural at math and engineering, but then I'd have to be an engineer or something. How terribly dull.

I'm really quite happy with the random talents I have. They make life interesting! And honestly, I'm used to them at this point.

I fear change, and shall keep my bushes.

I'm not too shabby with Star Wars-themed Photoshop, either. :)