My Hidden Talents

I recently took an essay class with my two oldest girls that I thoroughly enjoyed. I've decided to share some of the essays I wrote for class here on my blog. I've spent a lot of time away from writing anything. Busy with daily life. Now I am going to try to find the time to begin writing again.

My Hidden Talents
By Julia Hopkins
5/3/10

The audience is filled with curiosity as they watch the little girl enter the stage with a fiddle and a pogo stick. What on earth is she going to do with those two totally unrelated objects? The people wait with bated breath as she balances herself atop the pogo stick. Then very carefully she places the fiddle underneath her chin. The crowd, now silent, watches. Can she do it? Cheers and laughter irrupt from the crowd letting everyone know that she was indeed successful. She has the uncanny ability to play a tune on the fiddle as she bounces on a pogo stick.

“Stupid Human Tricks” is what David Letterman used to call them on his late night talk show. He would have people lined up to perform all kinds of feats. People would fly in from all over the US to show the American public that they can actually lick their own elbow or flatulate to the tune of a popular song. Some may say that this proves that America’s got talent, but I don’t know.

If that’s what one calls talent then I’m not sure I have any. However, an online dictionary defines talent as “a marked innate ability, as for artistic accomplishment, natural endowment or ability of superior quality.” Going by this definition I realize that our Creator gave us all talents. Although I’m pretty sure that He intended them to be known by others and not hidden, there are a couple of things that I’m good at that not many people, other than my family, know about.

First of all, I am a songwriter. I have always lived by the idealistic theory that life is a musical and we are the cast. Every life situation brings with it the opportunity to sing and write your own song to fit the occasion. With my first baby I sang to him a simple lullaby that I composed while I rocked him to sleep. Then as my children grew, I wrote them each a silly song about their name that made them laugh and giggle. But I suppose I began writing songs when I was a teen and received my first guitar. Maybe I don’t write enough to be given the title of songwriter but it is something I enjoy and I believe those who listen enjoy as well.

I also have the ability to keep my children connected in fun and creative ways. Perhaps one would call it creative bonding. At times my children have been given a school assignment that ended with a formal dress, family dinner in which we all affirmed one another with the papers they had written about one specific sibling. Every leap year we pull out a time capsule and read about what the children were like four years ago. Then we create a new paper to go inside the time capsule that tells about each child’s current interests and favorite people. Even a ride in the car can become a lesson in creative bonding when we try to surprise one another with a game we made up called HEY! Having as many children as I do it is difficult to keep them all focused and bonded but with some crazy ideas I think I’ve been able to do a fairly good job.

I may not be able to wiggle my ears or touch my tongue to my nose and I may never appear on David Letterman or America’s Got Talent but these are a few things at which I am talented. In the end, I would rather write a song for my children and keep them bonding with one another than to have my fifteen minutes of fame.