What are talents you had that you did not pursue? And how did that affect your life?

[applegrove]

I was a swimmer as a kid. I was in swimming lessons the whole time I was a child and got my bronze medallion at 16. My parents asked me if I wanted to join the local swimming club. I so wished I had. I would have made more friends. The friends I had in high school put me in a tiny little box metaphorically. I didn't grow at all as a teen. I ended up just a useless ninny as a young adult (useless ninny's are a big deal to psychopaths..they are coveted it seems). Now I have ptsd. But I found a new love: politics. It was something else I learnt as a kid but put aside. So there are second chances.

[Populist_Prole]

2. I was really good at art, especially drawing and painting, even calligraphy

Abruptly and totally cast it aside when I hit about 18. I have no idea why.

[OriginalGeek]

4. same here

except I may not have been "really good"...but I am convinced I was pretty good. I have no idea what happened but one day I looked up and realized I hadn't drawn anything in years. so a few months ago I went to the local hobby store and got an art pad and some pencils and pens and started sketching and realized I don't have anything to say. But maybe I'll keep at it to at least get back in practice. relearn shading and all that jazz and see if something decides it wants to come out.


(I did learn early on even before I stopped drawing that I sucked at drawing things other people wanted me to draw. It was only ever good when it was something I wanted to do. I wish I had taken some courses in college though - my high school had no facility for art at all.)

[rrneck]

3. Had a right arm like a cannon.

I could throw a baseball over 75mph but never played sports.

Could talk my way out of a sunburn but discovered what a dick I was as a salesman.

People seem to naturally open up and ask me advice and tell me their troubles but I didn't become a therapist.

[Neoma]

5. Still pursuing them!

Art, music, dancing, chess, boxing, computer programming, animating, writing, zoologist, political activist, tree farmer, historian, archaeologist and neurosurgeon. Hell yeah! (Not all at once, and probably not all of them.)

I don't discount anything. There shouldn't be anything to discount when what ever time, energy and life you have is all there is and you might as well use it.

[Saving Hawaii]

7. So when do we set up the DU chessboxing league?

[Neoma]

8. When such a thing exists.

[Saving Hawaii]

10. Huh?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=chessboxing

[OriginalGeek]

11. I love that song

&feature=related

[Aristus]

9. I can do just abut any voice impersonation you'd care to name.

I'm pretty good at it, too. But I didn't pursue a career in voice-over as hard as I might have. I tried to get an agent once, and I met so many creepy sleaze-bags, it discouraged me from continuing.

But I'm happy now, and doing what I was meant to do, so it's all good...

[trackfan]

12. I'm not super good at any one thing.

I'm better than a lot of people at a lot of things, but don't have the patience to really get into anything too deeply. I'm a "jack of all trades, master of none"; a dilettante.

[applegrove]

13. I used to try different things and master none of them. Then it turned out what I was really

good at was right under my nose.

[sakabatou]

14. Trumpet

I played it in middle school, but didn't go on. It didn't effect me as I still play piano.

[kentauros]

15. I actually pursued my talents.

And I'm still doing one of them (drafting)

I failed out of my pursuance of science degrees, mostly because of inorganic chemistry and calculus. Geology was one of the easiest classes I had (two semesters of historical and physic; preferred physical.)

Later on, I tried to put my artistic talents (BA in Graphic Arts) to use in the food industry. Well, unless you are a star pupil, don't bother. It's a legalized slave-trade in the US. I do better making stuff at home for friends and family.

One other positive from the interest in food was learning that organic chemistry isn't as bad as people say. Harold McGee's book "On Food and Cooking" makes that form of chemistry easy to understand and even fascinating! Besides, they use pictures of the molecules instead of relying only on dry, incomprehensible equations

And now, after changing universities and colleges several times in my early years, and having to retake each institution's own version of "Beginning English" just to get in, I am now pursuing my ability to write. It's kind of an arduous task to write a book of fiction, but I'm still enjoying it

[HopeHoops]

16. Armpit musician.

That was one of my finer talents in elementary school.

[OriginalGeek]

18. Lol! I was recently contacted via Facebook

by a lady who was the wife of my youth minister when I was a teenager. She saw my name on the friends list of my high school buddy who still lives in her area.

Haven't spoken to her in more than 30 years and what does she write to tell me? How funny my friend and I were making "those disgusting noises" with our hands and armpits.

[HopeHoops]

19. Yeah, in later life it became beer bottle milk jug bands. Guy shit.

[av8rdave]

17. When I was younger, I was often told I could write well

I realize now that I either lost the ability over time or I was never really as good as I thought I was.

[Nikia]

20. I think that writing comes with practice

Some people have more talent, but you can definitely get better or worse depending on how often you do it. I wrote well as a child and teen because I did it often. As I got older, I had other interests and responsibilities that led to me doing it less often. As a result, I am not as good at it anymore. Maybe I could be good at it again if I set aside time for it.
If you want to pursue your writing again, you have to start doing it regularly again.

[av8rdave]

23. You're exactly right

Guess that explains why most authors who get published only do so after years of hard work and rejection notices.

I'm going through some really major life changes right now. Who knows? Maybe I'll decide I have the time and energy to put some effort into it.

[Nikia]

21. Sometimes I wish that I majored in something else and went all the way with it

By all the way, I mean PHD and becoming a professor. I was much more interested and talented in politics, anthropology, sociology, history, and gender studies than I was in biology, which I majored in. My professors in these electives were more encouraging than the professors in my major.
Now as an unemployed food processing professional, I feel a bit lost.

[The Straight Story]

22. Porn Star

[av8rdave]

24. If there is ever a market for comedy adult films, I could have a new career!

[hunter]

25. Young Hunter and his brothers could do amazing things with nitrate fertilizers.

Had we pursued our talents we'd be dead or in prison.

I still want to build one of these:

My brothers and I never confessed to a smaller version that came down on a car. It scared the hell out of the driver. Us too.

And God Bless them, my siblings would still pick shrapnel out of my back and never tell another soul how it got there.

[Javaman]

26. How about a thread for persuing a talent that didn't turn out so good?

I'm serious.

I was a filmmaker. I loved it. Traveled, met famous people, worked on cool stuff and kept going until it became financially draining.

Sorry, I'm just in a "my spirit is crushed" sort of mood today.

I still do small projects but this once "rising star" flamed out.

Okay, I think I'm going to get drunk...(kidding)

[libodem]

33. me too

Take me with...

[RebelOne]

27. Acting.

Did a lot of it in school and then in a little theater group in Miami, but never wanted to compete in the acting world.

[madmom]

28. I actually wish I had gone to college. I have a circle of

5 close friends, all who graduated college. We talk about all kinds of things and they often call me to learn about or how to do something. One day we were talking about college and they asked me were I had gone. When I said I didn't, they didn't believe me. They asked me were I learned so much..I told them I "home schooled" myself. I often wonder how far I could've gone had I actually gone.

[Still Blue in PDX]

29. My teachers always said I wrote well.

Never pursued it as an adult. I don't tweet or blog and gave up after a week of NaNoWriMo.

[dana_b]

30. I had a

knack for music. I got fairly good (not great) on the guitar, was in choir and could read music easily and was starting on the piano. I wrote some songs and would even wake up dreaming of songs. No one I knew in a band took girls seriously though and I didn't push it so then one day I just stopped. Stupid. I think that I could have had some real fun anyway.

[EastTennesseeDem]

31. Baseball

Batted in the .370s with a good eight or ten home runs as a freshman in high school, granted not at a very high level. I was a pretty damn good pitcher too (mainly used in relief however).

I broke my arm something nasty the next winter, and I just...didn't continue playing. I wish like hell I could do that over.

[libodem]

32. I was a reasonably good artist

If you don't use it you lose it.

[femmocrat]

34. Two talents: science and music.

When I was in school, girls were discouraged from pursuing science classes. Even though I wanted to be a veterinarian, I took the easy way out and skipped math and science my senior year. I think I would have been a great vet. I became a so-so teacher instead, because there weren't many other choices for smart girls.

I was a also very good piano student, but lost interest when I discovered boys! LOL Oh well.... The road not taken and all that.