My strength lies in a few things: English, baking (sort of), cooking (kind of). But my failures? Almost everything I’ve done has resulted in something negative, especially if it was my first time. For example, I went skating when I was younger. I had never touched a pair of roller skates in my life until I went to my cousin’s birthday party. I was somewhat excited, but also nervous because what child really wants to fall down? Well, my tough-love father decided that he would teach me how to skate. He helped me shuffle forward a few feet and then let go. I cruised on just fine for a minutes, but that soon changed. I went around the curve of the rink, and was on ground, screaming and crying within moments. Dad came over and picked me up like it was nothing, my mom was panicking like the world was ending around her, one of the workers at the rink was trying to save their tail to avoid some lawsuit or something. And me? Yep, still crying. I had to wait a full day before I was taken to a hospital because my parents didn’t think my ankle was broken, but we were all mistaken. I broke my tibia, which was all fine and dandy. I got out of P.E., kids signed my cast, it was cool. And guess what? I love skating now. At my old elementary school, they always took us skating (this was after I broke my ankle) on field trips. I didn’t want to be left out, so I went on the trips too. With the help of a teacher, whom I can’t remember right now, I learned how to skate, but I’m cautious about it. I guess what I got out of that whole situation was to keep trying, even if it might hurt a little. You’re going to fall down, you might break something, but you’re still going to get up because you can’t stay on the ground long. And trust me, I fall down a lot. I am a literal and metaphorical klutz, and that’s okay with me! But usually, it’s my first times that will knock me down. When I try something new (as most people), I tend to mess up a lot. If it’s some sort of physical thing, well…. I get hurt.
But there’s one thing that I’m decent at: writing. I guess I wouldn’t be on this blog, sitting in this chair inside this classroom if I wasn’t decent enough at it. But I’ve been writing since I was little, whether it was an essay or a story. I think my first “contest” was required by my teacher, and she wanted us to write an essay on what is our favorite thing about the Gulf Coast. The prize was our essay getting published in a magazine and two tickets to Gulf Islands Waterpark. For the essay, I wrote about how much I loved going to the buffets at casinos because I loved the crab there. I’m pretty sure that was the whole essay: just describing crab. But I was one of the kids picked, so my essay was published, I was given a copy of the magazine and the tickets. It was nice. I don’t have it anymore; I think it was lost or thrown away a long time ago. I didn’t realize the significance of it at the time, but now, I kind of see that essay contest as the seed that has created the writer in me. That’s my origin story of sorts: just a little girl with a love for crab at casino buffets. Humble beginnings, I guess. So writing in my success, and I want to make it better because I know it can be improved if I just work on it. My goal is to improve my writing, just as a pianist spends most of their practicing, or an artist tests new paint techniques, or a pastry chef creates the next best dessert to hit the culinary world. And who knows? Maybe I’ll go back to that beginning and I’ll create a story about a little girl who just loves crab.
