Talent

Usually, something of this caliber would be in my phone, but I don't have my phone with me right now.

People dance, sing, dancing (dance+sing geddit?), play instruments...

Anyway, sometimes I feel these are the only talents that people appreciate.

Okay, there's also videography, photography, technology and art. People love things like that. They lap it up. I lap it up. I mean, it's so cool that they can sing, video, dance, draw, or photograph. I can't do any of them well enough or smoothly enough to, you know, be admired.

I know this sounds like all I want is to be admired, but no. It's not about that, not right now. I want admiration of the skill. The skill.

You hear things like, "Did you see that move?" or "She can sing so well!" or "That looks like it's gonna jump out, it looks so real." or "That picture is amazing. What edit did you use?"

But no one says, "I like the way you write. The style of writing you use, it's so quirky." No one says, "Did you see how he used that word? 'Bucketing.' I want to use that!" Or "Did you use spellcheck? You did? How the hell did you not manage to get an autocorrect on this word?" Or "Did you notice the way he subtly insinuated that the guy had an English accent through the words he uses?"

No one.

Nobody freaking bothers.

This is not about people ignoring my talent, people notice my talent just fine. People say I have a way with words, but I don't. I just like to write. Words flow easier for me, that's all. Business letters, essays - nope can't manage those. Just like dance, you like it but doesn't necessarily mean you'll like ballet. You only like certain types. But I digress.

The point is, people notice my skill. They comment on it. They do notice. But they don't think it's cool.

My friends: "No! Alicia, that's not true! Writing's cool. I like to read. I think being able to write like that is awesome."

Wanna bet? Look, I bet you a hundred bucks that if someone asks you, "What do you do to chill?" The reaction to "I write" would be less enthusiastic than, "I play (insert name of random instrument)/sing/dance/breakdance/draw." Chances are, the reaction to "I write" would be, "Cool. Do you play any instruments?" Whereas, the reaction to the other listed choices would be, "Hey can I see you do that sometime?"

Everybody likes the cool skills. I mean, any old bloke can write, but not just anybody can draw or play or dance. No one is ever gonna be all gung ho over my works of art because nobody thinks they are works of art. Well, at least not my peers.

I just want my skill to be more famous. More liked.

Sometimes I wish I were more like my mom. My mom can sing and draw and she takes to guitar like a fish to water.

Me? Sure I like guitar.

If only to give meaning to my prose.

The worst thing is, I like all the other famous talents just as much as everybody else does, but I can only think about how I could put it into words.