I'm Good. You're Good. We're All Good.

I've never felt particularly good at anything. Ok, that's a really bad way to start a blog post, huh? Well, it's true. Throughout school I sucked at math. How about we not even talk about school--I disliked the whole experience. Eight years of piano lessons were cool, but I never thought counting was super important. Ummm, it is! When I had to learn Chinese to live in Taiwan for 18 months, I tried my hardest to speak the language, but in the end my tones didn't quite ring true. Trying to learn French made Chinese feel like a walk in the park, though. I am pretty good at cleaning so at least I can say I'm good at that.

But...

It wasn't until I started writing that I realized I'm good at something. The thing is I've stuck with this dream. That one point is why I feel like I'm talented at this skill. As for my piano lessons, if I would have been more dedicated to it, I may have excelled further. Did I? Nope.

That's when I feel becoming good, great, amazing at something happens--when you stick with it! Regardless of the struggles that go along with acquiring a skill, punching through them is where true excellence can occur. Over two years of writing, rewriting, revising, and throwing whole chapters away, I've realized I'm good at something. Also, I have a huge desire to continue to become better.

That's the thing, friends. In the past, I wasn't super dedicated to the things I participated in. For example, sports classes in school were hard because my coordination skills were (are) terrible. However, if I'd have put in a bit more effort, I may have been good at it. Oh, and yes, if my head wasn't a target for soccer, dodge, foot, basket, or baseballs, it could have been easier, too!

Getting to the point! I like, love, adore writing. It's something I never thought would be my career path. One in which I wouldn't change any of the challenges I've gone through along the way.

In short, I'm good at writing (at least I think so). :D

What are you good at? And what have you done to get there?

Writing. Jewels.

Conquering the Blessed Beast

Just an update on my last post. . . I said that I was going through a “Revising a Chapter in my Novel War”. Well, I conquered the blessed beast. It bent to my will. Perhaps, I bent to its will (Hmm, a thought to ponder. Maybe I was getting in its way). Sometimes you need to step away from a difficult revision, come back later, and then typically it will come together beautifully and better than it would have been otherwise. I love it when that happens. I win! I win! I win! Well, I won nothing but the reassurance that a chapter is better than it was, and I can move on to the next chapter.
So, I feel like I have so little time to devote to editing with working full-time and taking a class. I can’t wait to be out of the class, I’ll have more time to devote to editing. Praise the day when I'm done with class. French is way tough (ie: I despise masculine and feminine words). Just beam the language into my mind, please (said with a pouty-puppy-dog-you-can’t-deny-my-wish-face). I audited French because my novel is set in Paris. I thought it would be helpful for the writing process. It has been helpful, but honestly, I’m so done with school. I have my degree and that is so enough for me. What the devil was I thinking taking a class again? Remind me never to do that to myself again. NEVER!

Parlez-vous français ?

French… my next feat. Why am I doing this to myself - learning another language and taking a class. Once I graduated last year with my Bachelors in Anthropology, I vowed I would never ever sit in another formal classroom again. I guess that I have failed but its a good kind of failure. I feel like to fully embrace my book, learning French is a must (its set in Paris so what better thing to do than learn the language).
I figure if I can learn Mandarin Chinese then I can do anything. Seven years ago, I lived in Taiwan for some time and was able to learn the language. I swear Chinese took 10 years off of my life. It was incredibly difficult. How many years will French take off of my life, I wonder?
Funny story, a few years back, there was an ASL class straight after the one I attended. They would only sign when they were in the class. Automatically, my mind thought, “If you want to communicate with them then you should speak Chinese. They will understand you for sure!” At that point, Chinese almost came out of my mouth (once it actually did).
The same thing happened last year when I traveled to France and Italy. There was numerous times where I almost caught myself trying to communicate with the natives in Chinese. Of course, I thought, they for sure will understand me. It made me laugh every time that Chinese did come out of my mouth.
Hopefully, learning French will help me to communicate with French speaking people instead of whipping out my Chinese to them. The problem now is not to speak FreChinglish while learning.