Discovering my talent wasn't hard

What is talent? In our modern world, talent is a common buzzword. We hear it in the workplace, we see it in sports, and we see it on television. But what does talent mean? Is there a difference between being good at something, and being talented at something? There are two parts to this question: what do you mean by "talent," and how do you define it?

To begin with, let's talk about what you mean when you say "talent." One way to think about talent is simply as things that you're good at doing; things that come easily to you. For example, if someone tells me they're good at math, I would say that's true for them: math comes easily to them.

But if someone says they have a knack for cooking or gardening or knitting or anything else that doesn't come naturally to them but requires practice over time before they get good at it, then I would say that's true for them too: they have learned how to practice their craft well enough so that they can now do it well enough on demand.

What's my talent?

I feel like I have talked about some of my talents a lot of times in different articles (especially when it comes to computers), so I will write about some of my talents that I rarely mention and the first one is teaching; yes, I'm a very good teacher and I have been told that so many times.

When did I discover this talent?

I can't remember the exact age but it was way back in junior high school. One thing that most people don't know about me is that I don't like asking questions in class and it's not because I'm shy or anything but it's because I feel the teacher won't give me a satisfactory answer (and a lot of times they don't), and so I prefer going to check textbooks and journals on my own to find the answers to the questions I have.

Because of this habit of mine, I became much better at knowing any topic being taught in class and I always helped my classmates who are stuck and didn't understand a particular topic. Another reason I love learning things on my own (instead of asking the teacher) is because there's this sense of accomplishment that comes with figuring out something complicated and I get this itch to talk about it to someone else, so when the opportunity comes up to teach someone, I don't hesitate.

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Some of my classmates back then will always compliment me by saying things like "you explained it better than our teacher" or "maybe you should be the one teaching us instead of Mr. ****". I didn't see any big deal with the way I teach, all I did was talk about the topics the way I understood them and it becomes clearer for my classmates. That was what I thought back then but later on, I discovered teaching is not just about saying the things you know, but it's also about being able to make the other person understand it

Since then, I have been in various situations where I have had to teach someone or a group of people about what I know, and for as long as I remember, I don't think I have ever come across someone who remained confused about a topic after I have taught them (unless they aren't being sincere about understanding the topic).

I still love teaching and I always do it whenever the opportunity arises, especially if the topic is something I love but I'm not planning to be a professional teacher because that line of work isn't exactly favorable in my country; teachers aren't valued over here and it always breaks my heart whenever I hear some of their stories.

Another talent

One thing I hardly tell people is that I'm very talented when it comes to drawing; especially when it comes to cartoons and still-life drawings. I also discovered this talent back in junior high school (I think I was 12 years old or so), I was always seeing one of my classmates making beautiful drawings with pencils having different colors and I took interest in it.

I went back home and started making sketches, focusing on the cartoon posters I had back then. The more I drew, the better I become at it and after a while, my drawing book was filled with different drawings of cartoon characters like Ben 10 (and his different aliens), Barbie, Cinderella, spiderman, and a whole lot of others. Sometimes when I was watching cartoons, I might come across a certain scene which I like and I will pause it and start drawing from the TV.

One of the senior students in my school came across my drawing book and begged me to sell it to him, which I did because the price was huge (I can't remember the exact amount). I abandoned drawing many years ago, around the time I started using phones and I got introduced to the internet and mobile games. Drawing was something I did back then to whirl away time because most of those drawings can take up to 12 hours to get completed

The longest drawing I did back then was of the transformers character: Optimus prime. It took me several days to complete because he is a huge robot and there are lots of small details which I have to add to make the final result look as similar to the original. I used to have one drawing book with me which was the last one I was using before I stopped, but I can't find it (I think it's in my apartment at the university).

Conclusion

Everyone has a talent. You might not know what yours is yet, but I bet if you asked yourself honestly and sincerely, if you took the time to really listen to yourself, you would find out. You could be sitting across from me right now and I would have no idea who you are or what your talents are, but we would be friends because we love talking about things that make us feel happy inside.

If you put your mind to it and kept asking questions about what makes your heart sing with excitement over things that everyone else does every day but doesn't even think about, then maybe one day, you will find out what yours is.

Thanks for reading

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