T-shirt: “One day you will meet someone who loves you exactly the way you are! (then you will gradually discover that they are crazy in other ways as well) 😁
But one person's crazy is another person's endearingly eccentric. 😉
Does Tal ever get under anyone else’s skin? She reminds me of those multi-sport athletes that can perform all sorts of challenging maneuvers with ease! Smarty pants!
I can offer those observations as one who was too similar in my elementary through middle school years. I wanted to think I excelled to create a diversion from how I really felt. I corrected my teachers! (After all, I was right!) I took any challenge or dare that showed itself.
Then there was the first chair B-flat clarinet incident. I’d played since second grade (with little instruction from the traveling music teacher, and less practice). I had joined the school marching band before starting middle school, and learned to keep the reed from freezing solid during Veteran’s Day parades in sub-freezing weather. 🥶
So when i joined the concert band, the more melodic first chair sheet music “sounded right.” I also didn’t know the sense of second and third chair parts. They sounded unmelodic! Clunky. The band leader indicated that third chair was the available seat, so there I started. I also quickly realized the first chair clarinetists were great! Bruised ego... but I persisted. I made 2nd chair by 9th grade but never 1st.
My emphasis wasn’t on mastering the instrument. Rather, assuaging my sense of low self-esteem with “position.” First has to be superior to third! The clunky third chair parts were a dead give away!
That’s my long version, incomplete, of what typist wrote so efficiently! I only saw weakness and failed to see opportunity. I would not have allowed a “Cal” to share thoughts on how to view weakness and respond to opportunity. Knowing myself in those days was more like living “The Daily Riddle,” A Tal classmate or friend wouldn’t have made sense telling me to focus more on knowing myself.
The Pennsylvania-Dutch saying comes to mind, “We grow too soon old and too late smart.” The growing old part I have a handle on. The smart part might take a while longer. 😬
I'm struck with this thought--that sometimes our weakness IS our strength. If I am weak, it allows you to be the strong one and to feel good about it. If I don't have a skill, you have the opportunity to help me--I let you be the one to shine. In other words, in my weakness, I am the giver, and that is strength. Does that even make any sense?
"Knowing yourself is important," says someone who struggles with mental illnesses and has a degree in psychology. By learning about who you are as a person and understanding what could be improved is a huge step to a successful future. Love the owl Gail.
T-shirt: “One day you will meet someone who loves you exactly the way you are! (then you will gradually discover that they are crazy in other ways as well) 😁
But one person's crazy is another person's endearingly eccentric. 😉
Does Tal ever get under anyone else’s skin? She reminds me of those multi-sport athletes that can perform all sorts of challenging maneuvers with ease! Smarty pants!
I can offer those observations as one who was too similar in my elementary through middle school years. I wanted to think I excelled to create a diversion from how I really felt. I corrected my teachers! (After all, I was right!) I took any challenge or dare that showed itself.
Then there was the first chair B-flat clarinet incident. I’d played since second grade (with little instruction from the traveling music teacher, and less practice). I had joined the school marching band before starting middle school, and learned to keep the reed from freezing solid during Veteran’s Day parades in sub-freezing weather. 🥶
So when i joined the concert band, the more melodic first chair sheet music “sounded right.” I also didn’t know the sense of second and third chair parts. They sounded unmelodic! Clunky. The band leader indicated that third chair was the available seat, so there I started. I also quickly realized the first chair clarinetists were great! Bruised ego... but I persisted. I made 2nd chair by 9th grade but never 1st.
My emphasis wasn’t on mastering the instrument. Rather, assuaging my sense of low self-esteem with “position.” First has to be superior to third! The clunky third chair parts were a dead give away!
That’s my long version, incomplete, of what typist wrote so efficiently! I only saw weakness and failed to see opportunity. I would not have allowed a “Cal” to share thoughts on how to view weakness and respond to opportunity. Knowing myself in those days was more like living “The Daily Riddle,” A Tal classmate or friend wouldn’t have made sense telling me to focus more on knowing myself.
The Pennsylvania-Dutch saying comes to mind, “We grow too soon old and too late smart.” The growing old part I have a handle on. The smart part might take a while longer. 😬
Thanks for sharing your clarinet experience with us!
We live and we learn?
What is small to the bear is big to the ant?
“There can be no strength without weakness. Weakness by another name is opportunity… opportunity to learn and grow.”
~Typist, a.k.a, ~Gail Boenning
🐇 🕳️🐇
https://www.themuse.com/advice/4-ways-to-answer-whats-your-biggest-weakness-that-actually-sound-believable
I figured an answer from another “Muse” might be interesting to Typist... 😉
And who is this “NEW” Paintist 🎨✍🏼🎨 contributing to the Love Letters?
"The" muse?
Who can get by with only one? 🤣
I'm struck with this thought--that sometimes our weakness IS our strength. If I am weak, it allows you to be the strong one and to feel good about it. If I don't have a skill, you have the opportunity to help me--I let you be the one to shine. In other words, in my weakness, I am the giver, and that is strength. Does that even make any sense?
Yes! It makes sense Karen. Thank you for thinking it through with us. ❤️💜💚
"Knowing yourself is important," says someone who struggles with mental illnesses and has a degree in psychology. By learning about who you are as a person and understanding what could be improved is a huge step to a successful future. Love the owl Gail.
Thank you Pennie.
Socrates - “To know they self is the beginning of wisdom.”
An early mentor taught me the importance of “leading myself first.”