What Are You Secretly Good At?

I have to add one more thing! I love when you are suddenly surprised by someone else’s hidden talent! It’s one of my fave things in life! One time, I spontaneously decided to throw myself a rollerskating birthday party (I was in my late 30s! ;>). My friend & neighbor came…a lady who may have been 10-20 years older than me…very conservative…average middle-age body type…a vet assistant…married, no kids. I was surprised she even came to this party, but my jaw almost literally hit the FLOOR when I saw her roller skate…in her own snazzy white leather skates btw! She was roller-dancing! really got her groove on!! Including high, funky kicks & shimmy-ing turns & spins!!!!! She was SO good she could be a solid gold disco roller dancer!!!! lol! I was thrilled watching her!! Loved it!! Amazing!!! This same lady shocked me again with a hidden talent she & her very nice, but also very conservative older hubby have! At a wedding reception, they suddenly broke into the most boisterous, talented, complicated-while-looking-effortless, joyful swing dancing I’ve ever seen in person!!!!! It’s SO contagious, they had us all out on the dance floor, doing our best & having a blast!! I adore hidden talents!! :>

I take excellent government ID photos. My passport and driver’s license are on point and I get regular compliments on them. Regular every day photos? Not so much. But make me stand in a line with armfuls of paperwork proving my identity and I can produce a freaking great photo.

I remember most of what I read, even if I don’t remember where I read it. Kids tend to notice that and ask me the most random questions, using me as live google.
I am human whistle and human frog : my kids will know I am calling them from across the park or in a crowded room when they hear my frog call or trrrrr whistle.
Actually I whistle songs all the time – better than I could ever sing.
I pick up stuff with my toes.

I’m weirdly good at vividly describing things, like smells, or tastes, especially if it’s a gross thing. I’m also really, really good at pinpointing peoples’ celebrity doppelgangers, or what two people they look most like.

Oh, I’m also really good at knowing if someone’s been in my space if they weren’t supposed to be. My poor husband has to deal with me asking him if he was in my closet or car or junk drawer all the time. I think it’s because I’m really good at taking in my surroundings and noticing if things have moved or been tampered with.

These are so much fun to read.
I’m really good with grammar; I can just hear a sentence or phrase in my head and know if it sounds right. This has also fed into my skill for business/technical writing. (However, does NOT translate into any kind of legal brief writing, as I quickly learned in grad school!) I’m a great test taker. ACT, SATs, GRE, college exams… If it is multiple choice, I’m even better. I can find anything on the internet – ex-boyfriends, current dates, textbooks, random archives, you name it. Oh, you need the 2007 US News & World Report Primary Care Medical School rankings? Got it.

Book recommendations! Friends ask me, I tell them, I rarely get it wrong :)

i love and am weirdly good at figuring out which actor is doing the voiceover on commercials.

If there were Olympic Games in catching things that I’ve clumsily knocked off the medicine cabinet before it hits the bathroom counter I would win the gold. And I cheer myself on after every successful save because who the hell else is going to?!

I’m Maureen’s twin!

I am really good at getting in front of the crowd at a pedestrian crossing to get across a road without getting trampled. Sounds weird when you say it out loud.

Although I have always wished I was a good hunter/jumper (even just passable) what I am really good at is phlebotomy. I am one with the vein -unless I have met you socially beforehand and then I’ll actually get someone else to take your blood. I’m useless.

I know how to spell almost any word, and I will have random ‘big’ vocabulary words pop in my head to use in conversation, later checking my dictionary app to see if the way I used it was actually correct?! it always is!

more than three times I have been able to walk up to a wild bird and hold it in my hand – most recently the other day, a bird flew into my house through an open door, and I walked over to the window where it was trying to fly back out… said, “don’t worry sweetheart I am helping you get out” held out my hand and with no coaxing, picked it up, walked over towards the door, and then it flew outside! and aside from birds, most animals tend to trust and gravitate towards me which makes me feel like snow white :)

I remember all lyrics to all songs, forever.

I have beautiful handwriting

I am excellent at re-configuring spaces, ie. rearranging furniture in the same space like 6 different ways. I love doing this. Like other people have mentioned as well, I can always pick the right size tupperware for any amount of leftovers, I can always tell how much of this will fit into/onto that, etc. and I’m amazing at packing a suitcase or moving boxes

I can sing outrageously loud like an opera singer and project my voice really far

I have the patience to do tasks like pilling a sweater, meticulously trimming a plant, untangling a necklace, color-organizing everything (my bookshelf! my bags! my closet!)

I am very good at organizing in general and turning a mess into a clean, pretty space

If I hear someone speaking in an accent, I can then imitate that accent (this blows my friends away and is a lot of fun)

I’m terrible with directions, navigation, street names, etc — like embarrassingly so, but I am excellent with landmarks, shopping centers… even if I’ve been there only once, I can remember what stores were in a shopping center and typically I can also remember the order of the stores (on the right side there was a see’s, a lululemon, a barnes and noble, a jewelry store, an LPQ, and a movie theatre)

These have been so fun to think about. I like focusing on these little gifts!

I also can pick up things with my toes. I can also remember what I wore to every important (and most non-important) events in my life.

I’m really good at recognising people — whether faces or the backs of people! I recognise gaits really well, which is both a useful and awkward skill. I might spot a familiar gait on the street, but it’d be too late to run!

Love reading about all these quirky skills.

I can tell you how much every item of clothing I own cost. I’ll give myself a $2 margin because of sales tax. Some items I’ve had since high school (10-15 years +), but I still know. No idea why my brain feels a need to remember, haha.

I only have to hear a song maybe twice, to have it lodged in my brain forever.

Want to know the second and third verses of a song my class sang in a Christmas concert 25 years ago? I’ll know it.

I’m also GREAT at assembling furniture. The more complicated, the better!

I was super obsessed with movies when I was younger and have a lot of tidbits memorized about films released from about 1993 – 2002, like dates and directors. Two of my favorite memories of this somewhat useless database was correcting a guy who was trying to mansplain Jurassic Park to me, and impressing a crush by knowing who directed The 13th Warrior.

I have an interesting gift.

I saw my sister’s baby in a dream before she knew whats he was having. He has grown up to look exactly as I saw him. And then our older sister got pregnant and I saw her baby too, again before she knew the gender. And again, she has grown up to look (and act!) exactly as I dreamed her. I just recently dreamed one of my long-time girlfriends was pregnant, and a couple weeks later when all us girls met up for dinner, she told us she was trying to get pregnant! I’m anxious to see what happens there :) I wonder if I will see our child one day when I am finally pregnant.

Also, I’m really good at guessing the square footage of homes.

I call this my secret super power, but when I don’t want to run into people, I don’t. I live in a relatively small city and I’ve never run into an ex-boyfriend, a friend I’ve decided to distance myself from, a former teammate I’d just assume not see once I left a job, EVER. (I fully recognize that perhaps they’ve seen me and don’t want to say hi, and I’m ok with that.) It’s happened since I was a young adult, and even my friends have commented on it.

It’s not a secret but I am really good at buying people gifts. I put a lot of thought into them and make sure each gift fits the person really well while also being super unique. I’m also really good at planning vacations. I think I just love really fun/unique experiences and want everyone to experience them. If I have a 5 minute conversation with you and also have access to your social media… I could buy you the best gifts and plan your dream vacation ?