What makes you so good at what you do?

[Sommer Leigh]

I'm fifth of nine - and I'm here to testify!!
two older brothers and two older sisters - me - two younger brothers and two younger sisters.

Holy wow. I can't imagine being in a house with that many people every day.

[Watcher55]

I'm fifth of nine - and I'm here to testify!!
two older brothers and two older sisters - me - two younger brothers and two younger sisters.

Holy wow. I can't imagine being in a house with that many people every day.

Probably another reason I write - my folders were the only things that were MINE. Even my clothes were often hand-me-downs that were ultimately handed down. (I was the first in the family to have a room to myself)

On the upside having eight brothers and sisters educated my perspectives. Out of the nine of us, none of us are the same and probably wouldn't have anything to do with each other if we weren't related.

btw I'm the 50th grandchild on my Mom's side (she was one of eleven - Dad was one of ten and my sis has eight).

Catholics - sheesh

[Sommer Leigh]

On the upside having eight brothers and sisters educated my perspectives. Out of the nine of us, none of us are the same and probably wouldn't have anything to do with each other if we weren't related.

btw I'm the 50th grandchild on my Mom's side (she was one of eleven - Dad was one of ten and my sis has eight).

Catholics - sheesh

I think I had the exact opposite of you! Almost none of my dad's cousins had children, my dad was an only child, my mom had sisters but they either passed away early or didn't have kids and there were no brothers and sisters of my mom's parents. I had an older female cousin who had no interest in me (we still barely acknowledge each other at family gatherings) and I had two much older male cousins on my mom's side who I played with a little until they hit high school and became interested in girls.

I can't imagine so many kids! In a way I am very jealous.

[Down the well]

I'm fifth of nine - and I'm here to testify!!
two older brothers and two older sisters - me - two younger brothers and two younger sisters.

This reminded me of a family I knew as a kid. Their last name was Finger. They had ten kids and lived in two houses, side-by-side -- parents in one house, grandparents in the other. The kids went back and forth I suppose. I always wanted to write a story about them.

And in some cases it was really hard to get in touch with their cousin, last name Toe.

Lol. And I'm betting the younger Fingers all wore hand-me-downs. *And their cousins the Toes learned to sock away their money for a rainy day.

*Edit: I can't help myself. I love a good pun. Even if everyone else is groaning. ;P

[polymath]

I won't take no for an answer from anything not a living being, and sometimes even then I won't take no for an answer, especially myself. I've got a set of progressively more persuasive hammers, a tiny ball peen, a generic claw hammer, a framing hammer, a half-heavy sledge hammer, a full-heavy sledge hammer, and a heavyweight splitting maul. Plus an assortment of other instruments of persuasion, prying, cutting, drilling, driving, pulling, pushing, lifting, and separating and fastening tools.

But I'm not into wanton mayhem and destruction. When I'm tasked with a demolition project, I'm methodical. A brick wall needs to come down? I want to reuse the bricks. A plasterboard wall? Save the plasterboard and reuse it. The sticks and studs, save them for reuse. Take it down and build something else with the salvaged materials.

I'm the way I am because life is bent on supplying me with hand-me-down materials. So be it. Life's that way.

I will take no for an answer from living beings because every being is entitled to chart their own destiny and have an opinion different from mine and learn or not from trial and error. I'll offer an opinion if asked. Otherwise, I'll let 'em go at it, because it's as impossible to argue against an opinion as an excretory orrifice. There's no hammer heavy enough to persuade 'em otherwise.

So when need be, to save a life from egregious harm, bodily, financially, emotionally, there's other instruments of persuasion in my tool box. Empathy is a heavy hammer. Rapport is a heavy hammer. Compassion is a heavy hammer. I strive mightily to leave the imperative hammer in the bottom of the tool box, though sometimes it's called for.

Life made me this way: I'm an empath. I feel others' pain and want to take it away so I can pursue my life's desires without that distraction interfering. I can walk a mile in someone else's shoes at will and understand the intent and meaning of that someone else's purposes and complications. I'm human though. I do it for myself, imperfectly too often, and don't do enough for myself. That's why I'm good at what I do.

[Mike Dickson]

When I was two years old, my dad gave me a screwdriver and a metal stool and asked me to take it apart so I did. I then proceeded to put it back together. After I finished I had one extra screw.

Sidebar- guys you know what I'm talking about. We can take something completely apart and put it back together in one sitting and come away with extra parts.
Recently, I took my snow blower apart and put it back together finishing with two extra bolts. My wife thinks it's going to break down. I told her there's a good chance a man designed this snow blower with other men in mind, as the designer’s know they have to put more parts into it to make up for what we leave off after we "fix it".

With that said, my mother still has the stool, uses it daily, and it's still missing the screw.

When I was twelve I wrote a story called "Neighbors". I kept a log of how much time I spent writing it. After 6 months, I had 180 pages and everyone died so I stopped writing. I did the same thing the following year, "Neighbors II" and you guessed it, everyone died. Not gruesome deaths though. I wasn't a sick kid; I'd just didn't know what to do with the characters after their story had been told so I killed them off.

What makes me good at what I do?

I never leave a project or a goal incomplete. I don't play baseball, can't stand playing it actually, but when I saw a mean curve ball, I had it set in my mind that I could do the same. Right now, I can still throw a mean curve, really mean, but I still have never actually played a game of baseball, but I'm a season ticket holder for the Twins. Weird.

March 2005, my father in law dies at a young age. He was reading "A Time to Kill' a book he said he always wanted to read. I hadn't read a book in ten years easy but my mother in law asked me to finish reading it for him so I did. When I finished, I thought, with practice, I could write that too. So here I am. I have to learn a foreign language, finish my BA in English, and become a great pianist after I become a published author.

[GeeGee55]

This is what makes me good at what I do: my willingness to work as hard as necessary, my willingness to listen, my respect for my teachers, my fear of failing.