Sunday, November 15, 2009

Gratitude Challenge - Day 15

Assignment: Take the time to focus on yourself. Appreciate and give thanks for your unique personality, skills, and talents.

Well, this is a bit harder for me. I don't always think of myself as anything all that special. And it's not anyone's fault but my own. I think I'm all right, you know ... but I'm not as amazing as a lot of other people that I know.

Let's start with things that I get complimented on, I guess. And I'll try not to feel WEIRD for talking so much about myself.
  • Michael tells me that I'm one of the least judgmental people that he knows. True, I take most people at face value. So what if you're skinny or not, gorgeous or less-than? Doesn't matter all that much to me. You're still a person and everyone has something cool about him/herself. I know great people that are not Christians or heterosexuals or stuff. Don't really care so much about that. The Lord loves them all, so why shouldn't I?
  • Michael also tells me that I'm really good about not saying mean things to or about people. I mean that's good and all. I LIKE to be nice. And, hey, it's often EASY to say mean things. (Heck, I think plenty of things that aren't near as nice as they should be.) But it's better to be nice. There's enough cause for hurt and sadness around. I think we should all start just complimenting people to counteract it.
  • Dianne told me that I'm good at digiscrapping. Which made me feel quite pleased with myself, since she's a whiz at scrapping in real life. Digiscrapping is much better/easier for me since I can't get frustrated and throw it across the room. :P
  • People think that I'm funny. It's always nice.
  • Some people even think that I'm clever. That makes me happy.
  • I know a lot of elephant jokes.
  • I read aloud well. I use inflection and everything. Reading aloud is fun for me. (And, when I get words wrong, can be even more amusing than usual. ... Like the one time, in front of my theater group -- with one of my big high school crushes -- when I accidentally read that a character had ... well, it was SUPPOSED to be a "speech deficit" ... and I SAID "speech DEFECATE." Yeah ... I can laugh about it now.)
  • I can usually look back at my past mistakes and laugh ... it's taken me a while to get to that point.
  • I draw stick figures with attitude/personality. I have a collection of sketches that I did for when Michael and I were teaching Primary. The kids seemed to pay better attention when they had those visuals to deal with.
  • I can do crosswords ... I prefer the ones in Women's World magazines. They're kinda easy. Usually.
  • I learned to do Sudoku (Thanks, Nintendo DS and Brain Age and Brain Age II!)
  • I bake well ... and can experiment with a recipe.
  • I remember some of my friends' birthdays and phone numbers from high school (I used to be better ... but then I got a cell phone. :P) ... Don't ask me my locker numbers or combinations. I'm not so good with those.
  • I can be good at being snarky ... which is fun when I'm watching a movie with Michael ... I don't think it's all that fun for other people around me, though. Sorry!!
  • I enjoy talking to people. I like to learn about them.
  • I seem to be able to talk to lots of different people. Like different age groups. Maybe since, because I'm an only child, I tend to adopt people. I don't know.
  • I'm kinda flexible. I used to be more so.
  • I like to dance ... and used to perform a little. Swing dancing was the best (and Lindy Hop).
  • I don't mind being on stage. I loved being in theater. I don't get bad stage fright.
  • I seem to do well enough at public speaking. I am more nervous when I'm giving a talk than when I would perform in plays, though. Hey, when I'm talking in church, it's MY words that I'm saying. Not someone else's!
  • I do well when I play along as I watch Jeopardy! ... Sometimes people think I'm smart because I know trivia-stuff like that. I don't feel all that smart, since I know that I don't know TONS of stuff. But it's flattering that people think that I do know stuff.
    ... Did that even make sense?
  • I read quickly. Probably because I like to read and because I've had a LOT of experience reading.
Yeah, that's most of what I'm coming up with right now. I mean, if there's anything GLARING that I've forgotten, you can feel free to jump in there. :P No pressure, though. I don't want to get a big head about this or anything. :P

I mean, yeah, I'm not the MOST AMAZING PERSON ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET or anything. But I'm getting more comfortable in my own skin. And, you know, I'm not a bad person to be. I'm a decent friend, a decent computer-geek (I could be LOTS geekier), and a decent mom. I leave room for improvement ... which is fine. I don't have to be ABSOLUTELYPERFECTOHMYGOSH right yet. Just working towards being better and better. Baby steps. And I can handle that.

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