Consider your compliments

What do you do when someone pays you a compliment?

Do you take that payment and put it in the emotional bank? Or do you chuck it out the window as worthless, frivolous, or misdirected?

I went to a math and science intensive college prep high school. In my senior year of high school I was taking Calculus II. I also took AP Biology. But I never got over the fact that I didn't take AP English.

I liked my English classes a lot. I liked being creative, fun, and analytical in my writing. I ended up going to a very writing intensive college. At Randolph-Macon Woman's College, you got a separate "writing grade" in every class you took. There was even a "writing lab": a peer tutorial center where you could get help writing.

I can remember people telling me I was a good writer. That my writing had a good tone to it and that is was enjoyable and even humorous to read. But I always got the same criticism. I was grammatically sloppy. No matter how many times I proofread a paper or sample, it was NEVER error free. For that reason my writing in high school and college never received the grades I wanted.

Despite all of that, people kept telling me I was a good writer. But I never believed them. A good writer was my Phi Beta Kappa college roommate Hope. A good writer was AP English taking and film critic friend Troy. They can and probably always will speak and write circles around me. They are good at what they do.

My lesson in being brave enough to me came in discovering: Someone will ALWAYS be better than you at something. We live in a diverse world of gifts and talents and there will always be someone who can execute a task better or more effectively than you can. Just because someone will always be better doesn't mean that you aren't good enough to try to pursue it. And this doesn't contradict my post on you being an Original. I may never write an award winning book. I may never figure out the proper use of colons and semicolons. I may never write a grammatically error free blog post (sorry!;)

But I will relish the joy I get from writing. I am so surprised at how much I look forward to writing and yes, editing the next post.

Pay attention to the compliments people are paying you. For so long, I dismissed compliments on my talents and abilities as niceties or courtesy. Take a minute and consider "What if I am..." good with numbers? A good cook? Good with kids? Good with my hands? Wise? Funny? Insightful? A good singer? Artist? Poet?

God gave you that interest and while a host of other people can enjoy and appreciate your talents, certainly He wants you to do the same. You may never win American Idol or do anything that will grab the newspaper headlines. OR you may be the next HGTV design Star or win Dancing With the Stars.

Let's not rob ourselves from doing something we love just because we don't think we are as good as the next person. Don't be fooled into thinking I have got this lesson in the bag. I still struggle with it, but the more I write about....the more the seed develops and takes root in my heart.

And that is enough to keep me writing!

Wholeheartedly me,
Julia