Justin and I were attending a birthday party. We had just gotten through the typical small talk questions of "What's you name? Isn't the weather nice? And what do you do for a living?"
I always feel so small when people ask me what I do for a living. I'm not a computer engineer making a difference in the lives of ALS patients like my husband. I don't have children so I can't claim "housewife" status. And my life is far from what I ever expected it to be. I'm not living the American dream; I don't have 2.5 kids, a minivan, or even a house with a white picket fence.
But I have travelled to Europe. I am married to an amazing man. And, crazy enough, I actually like what I do.
Nevertheless, sometimes it's difficult to have confidence when I'm in situations like that. Sometimes it's difficult to see that my life has worth.
As an answer to that feeling of insecurity, here are ten things I'm good at:
1. Travel Planning
I'm not always good at managing my time for travel planning, but when I do plan, I'm good at it. (We won't say the same for travel budgeting. 😳)
2. Planning, in general.
You need a list? I'm there!
Organizing files, dressers, drawers, or cabinets? I'll do it.
Labeling is good too.
3. Editing text.
In school, I was the go-to text editor, specifically if you were a friend and we didn't share the same English/LA class. I'm all about finding the right word(s) and clarifying what is being said. (No, my blog should not be confused as an example.)
Words matter.
4. Research.
Give me google or give me death.
I'm not talking about scholastic research (though they were my favorite types of papers to write), I'm talking about finding answers to questions.
Today's google search: How do you book a Korean Air flight with Delta miles? Answer? patience. And possibly a call to Delta. (In other words, I learned it wasn't really worth it unless you stumbled upon a good deal.)
5. Being Quiet.
Two weekends ago a waitress who didn't know me from any other Tom, Dick, or Harry came up to me and said "you're quiet". Umm thanks? Is that a compliment?
But seriously, I hear it all of the time.
"You should talk more."
"You're too quiet. 😉"
Well maybe you talk too much?! Ever think about that?
6. My Reliability.
If I say I'm going to do something, I do it. No matter what.
7. My Candor.
Don't get me wrong–I do lie, occasionally. But 99.999999% of the time, I'll tell you the truth even if you don't want to hear it. I feel like you should know the real me and not some person I'm pretending to be. Plus, I'm not very good at lying unless I have convinced myself that the lie could be true.
My grandparents called it correctly when they told me a story about how my grandmother took me shopping then told me not to tell my grandfather how much we spent. Immediately upon returning to their home I waltzed in, 5 years old or so, and told my grandfather happily that "We took the price tags off of the toys so that you wouldn't know how much we spent!" 😉 😳 😞 Yep, that's me. I didn't tell … exactly.
8. I'm considerate.
I will put your happiness or best interest ahead of my own.
9. Staying up late.
Don't ask me to get up early unless we are doing something really exciting,
But staying up late? How late do we want to stay up? … until the sun comes up? 😉
10. Writing daily … or almost daily.
That's why I have a blog, I think. 😊
Are there ever situations or times when some part of your life makes you feel insecure? What do you do when that happens? Can you think of ten things you are good at?
*Join #TopTenThursday by clicking over to Confessions of a Part Time Working Mom and linking up your blog post for this week's top ten!
