Talented...at Something.

Today Halbastram and I went to the Big XII Equestrian Championship, as it was a most gorgeous day & because, let's face it: everyone likes horses.  Even people who say they don't like horses but still ride a fake one on the merry-go-round like horses.  I didn't fully get the gist of what was going on in the competition: there was some trotting, some show boating, perhaps some galloping.  But people were cheering & whooping & hollering & applauding, so I assume something was taking place.  Aside from my lack of knowledge about the sport, as I was watching the pretty girls on the pretty horses participate in an event that I'm sure they've been engaged in since they were little girls, it made me realize how sad I was to not have been given the opportunity to foster a talent in my youth.

Extracurriculars were not of the utmost importance in my house.  My mother was mainly concerned about my academics & she worked hard to ensure that I continued to get As on my report card.  Any extracurriculars, I had to seek out on my own, and only if they didn't interfere with schoolwork.  I played softball in grade school, but despite how much I loved it I was really quite terrible at it.  I hit well enough to get out at first, I fielded like shit & I hated to run.  Nevertheless, I always seemed to be placed on a team with stellar people.  So despite my lack of skill, I have three back-to-back-to-back championship trophies sitting at my mother's house.  I feel bad, since I didn't exactly earn them but whatever.  They're mine.

In the sixth grade, I joined a local gymnastics team & trained for a city-wide competition.  I came in second-to-last place out of about 50-60 girls.  So, there's not much more to say about that.

In high school, I wanted nothing more than to join the bowling team.  Bowling, much like softball, was just one of those things I liked doing but wasn't necessarily good at.  But I wanted a Letter for my jacket.  I attempted to tryout for the softball team, but after one at-bat (in which I discovered that "fast-pitch" was totally different from what we played in grade school), I became discouraged and never returned to future tryouts.  My best friend wanted to play tennis, so I decided to play tennis as well.  I had no idea how to play tennis, but I figured that we'd learn since we were going to be placed on the Frosh-Soph team anyhow.  After an undefeated season (2-0 as doubles with my best friend), my tennis coach gave me an ultimatum: pay $200 for tennis lessons during the off-season or I don't advance to Varsity.

So I quit the tennis team.

I was on the bowling team for three years of high school.  We were terrible, but it was the one sport where there were teammates who were even worse than I was.  So I stuck with it.

During my Sophomore year, I took band as I had a strong desire to learn how to play the trombone (keep the jokes clean, now).  I was quite terrible at it for the first three months, but I was given the opportunity by my band teacher to take my trombone home during Christmas break & practice.  And practice I did.  I came back not only having mastered the most basic songs (I'm looking at you, Hot Cross Buns) but had become so skilled that I was asked to join the advanced band at the beginning of the next school year & also asked to play at the commencement ceremony.  There were two of us playing trombone that day, but my 2nd trombonist stopped playing after five minutes so I played the rest of the song by myself & no one noticed that only one trombone had been playing for the duration.

Yeah, I was goooooood.

But, as high school was coming to an end, I realized I would have to give up the trombone as I did not have the funds to purchase my own.  I asked the music director at my future college if the school could supply me with a trombone & he replied, "well, other student-musicians supply their own instruments, but we'll see what we can do."

He never got back to me.

Yet another talent gone to waste.

Alas, at the present time, I have my writing as my new talent.  It doesn't require any expensive equipment, doesn't throw balls at your face & never makes you run (most of the time). 

I think the moral of this story is that I am fucking terrible at sports, but excel at the musical & literary arts.

(Does this mean I've been a geek all these years & didn't realize it?  Dammit!!)