Monday, September 17, 2018

Things I Wish I Could Do


I'm a pretty capable person, so are you, probably. I can generally do anything I set my mind to. With a few notable exceptions, I have always found myself to be competent no matter what I try to do. Of course I have to learn things that I don't know but...oh, you know what I mean.

But there are a few things that I truly cannot do no matter how hard I try. And I do feel rather sad about them because these are things that I admire in other people. 
In no particular order:

Math
I cannot do it.
My awareness of my math problems started in the second grade when Mrs. Allison made me take home a paper to get it signed by my parents. It was about greater than and less than. Of course I know which whole number is larger than the other, so why, oh why, do we need to have an abstract symbol in there? Why can't we just say that one number is larger than the other one? Needless to say, I didn't get much better than that. I would estimate my math limit to be at about the half way point of high school freshman algebra 1.

I genuinely admire people who have that part of the brain that can do math with skill and understanding. But, for me, all of the logic of math actually makes no sense to me.

Voice
I love music.
I listen to many genres of music and enjoy quite a variety of music. If pressed I would say that my favorite instrument is the human voice. Beautiful tone, range, stunning ability to move me with your voice...these things are so beautiful. I can't whistle, I can barely hum, and my singing voice is truly abysmal, not that that stops me from singing. Many, many times my daughter will look over at me and say Please don't sing, Mom!

Memory
I can forgive myself my brain limitations when it comes to math abilities, logic, and reasoning. But I get very frustrated with my brain's poor memory. I know that, at times, my poor memory makes people think that I don't truly care when they talk to me or that I'm not genuinely listening; I think that is the worst thing, really. How I got through elementary school, junior high, high school, undergraduate, and graduate schools is a total mystery to me. I cannot do things where I have to memorize things, but if there is an art to getting a feeling about something, I'm your girl.  😉 


Language
I LOVE language.
If I could change any of these things, it would be the ability to learn another language. I have tried many times using many different formats and styles of learning, all with zero success. With my interest in history I would love to be able to read source documents! I have tried learning Latin several times with absolutely no success and I've tried learning other languages as well. I do have an excellent grasp of root words of the romance languages, but I am completely unable to learn the languages themselves.

Art
Another skill that I practice for my own entertainment is various forms of art. With very determined effort I can often pull off a decent piece of art, but it is always truly difficult. It doesn't come easy for me at all and I don't have a natural ability.


On the other hand, I'm pretty good at lots of other things and I wouldn't change any of those. SO, although the math one stumbles me regularly, and the memory one gets me every single day, even though I would love to do these things I'm actually quite satisfied with myself as I am.

What do you wish you could do?

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