What is something about yourself you have learned to like over time? Maybe you quickly grew to appreciate it or maybe it took a long time to come to that position, but now you like it. What is that thing or are those things?
Some ideas that come to mind are more abstract and inchoate, but one vivid example is the feet. I used to be very embarrassed of them and think that they were ugly compared to other people's feet. Everyone else seemed to have such regular and straight and small feet - the kind of feet that looked cute in sandals or just barefoot. Feet with long and thin toes, all in a regular straight line. I used to hide my feet whenever possible or somehow magically try to curl them up under myself into invisibility in impossible situations like swimming pools or parachute day in PE class. I wore a lot of hand me down shoes from people who had long and narrow feet compared to mine, and permanently developed bumps on both sides of the foot as a result. The bumps particularly bothered me and were the sign of great ugliness.
But now ... Somehow, I love my feet. Everyone seems to have painful feet, weak feet, inadequate feet for whatever task they're getting up to. But mine are sturdy and can pick up pencils and I've grown to like their looks over time. Now that everybody is old and bony and wrinkly and has weird veins popping out everywhere, my feet don't look weird anymore. They look better, younger. I haven't spent adulthood crushing them into ill-fitting shoes, so they're in decent shape. They still seem too large relative to the calf length, but now that seems like a useful trait for running or lifting things or whatever. I'm glad my size is just a bit bigger than average that I can buy nice shoes on sale. I will not be mean to these feet by making holes in them; they deserve only the peppermint foot cream and pleasant socks.
Learned to Like It
Re: Learned to Like It
Come on people what have you learned to like about yourself I want to hear it.
Re: Learned to Like It
My OCD. When I was a kid I had a lot of trouble with it and had trouble coping with it. But as I got older, and it got more under control, I came to appreciate what it did for me. Don't get me wrong- if it gets out of hand (like it did several years ago), I take medication to control it because the negative side effects are horrible. But when you're not having those, it's actually great for my job. As a litigator, much of my job is trying to anticipate and respond to every single possible argument that can come up in court. My OCD helps me compartmentalize and analyze all those contingencies and then run the traps on them over and over to come up with more elegant responses. It allows me to upload to my brain just the information needed for the trial/hearing/deposition and discard the rest temporarily. And while it may make me a noncommunicative robot when I'm "uploaded" and in litigation-mode, it makes me great at my job.
Re: Learned to Like It
Uhh, I guess my chest hair? lol. I dunno. I'm getting there with my widow's peak. I used to ask it to be deemphasized when getting a haircut. I'm more okay with -- I think just glad I got anything -- though prepping for when that goes too.
My scar near my nose used to be bigger on my face when I was little, and worried people would think it looked like snot. Now it makes me ruggedly handsome -- ha, no I forget it's even there, dunno if others even see it.
None of these are Learn to Love it, so I failed.
My scar near my nose used to be bigger on my face when I was little, and worried people would think it looked like snot. Now it makes me ruggedly handsome -- ha, no I forget it's even there, dunno if others even see it.
None of these are Learn to Love it, so I failed.
Re: Learned to Like It
Kyle, Good job. I have not really learned to love it myself so I'm glad that you have done it - I definitely can see the adaptive aspects, and if it were adaptive for work in that way it would be really good.
Mando and Pete, No points for you. Try again. We never heard what was wrong with Pete's chest hair so maybe that's still a live option for learning to love it. I can see where that might be something that when you're young you don't like acquiring but then later on you're like, this is awesome after all. Scars can definitely be rugged in a positive way? I don't know. You gotta keep searching if these options are dead ends.
Mando and Pete, No points for you. Try again. We never heard what was wrong with Pete's chest hair so maybe that's still a live option for learning to love it. I can see where that might be something that when you're young you don't like acquiring but then later on you're like, this is awesome after all. Scars can definitely be rugged in a positive way? I don't know. You gotta keep searching if these options are dead ends.
Re: Learned to Like It
This proves that he should be learning to love it, not only because this shows that people aren't looking at it and thinking of snot, but also because we don't expect you to notice if Pete is ruggedly handsome for this reason. OR DO WE? Hmm. Did you think he was ruggedly handsome and just not know exactly why? Weren't quite able to put your finger on the cause but you knew he was ruggedly handsome anyway?
Re: Learned to Like It
AHEM PETE MANDO WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT YOURSELVES
Re: Learned to Like It
My broken nose. I broke it when I was a kid. Long story short, me and a group of kids were playing, and thanks to another one of the kids, I landed face-first on the ground (grass and dirt, not concrete, thankfully), and broke my nose. My parents weren't rich by any means, though not poor either, and mom being a nurse, they tended to just fix things at home when they could, so the broken nose was "fixed" by just stopping the bleeding, and didn't do anything for the broken septum that subsequently healed crooked, resulting in a deviated septum and crooked nose. I used to hate it. I fine with it now, for the most part. Although there are still times when pictures are taken from a certain angle where it looks like I have a boxer's hooked nose.
Re: Learned to Like It
It will surprise absolutely no one that I don't have anything that I've learned to like. I've learned to dislike more things about me, but that's not quite the same thing.
Reel on a repeating loop
Re: Learned to Like It
Somehow I miss the story about the nose! That's a good one! I'm sure that has only made the nose better. Pretty sure we have seen your nose but it's so small when it appears at a tiny box on the screen, I can't recall what it looks like. But I don't recall it looking bent. Anyway, I can offer no expert assessment but as somebody who also has broken the nose, I assure you that it only makes you better each time!
Re: Learned to Like It
Hmm
My ability to talk to anyone.
My wife says I attract weird people...and dogs. This is true. This is good.
As far as "weird" goes, I consider myself to be weird and, if someone does seem a little off I guess I seemed like a safe person to talk to.
In a world full of SEC football fans (all other conferences are weak and "I can't believe everyone doesn't watch college football") there are not a lot of people who don't look like brooding convicts or Navy Seals...although I have been called a few animal nicknames...(Ox and Circus Bear to name a couple) but never a SEAL
My ability to talk to anyone.
My wife says I attract weird people...and dogs. This is true. This is good.
As far as "weird" goes, I consider myself to be weird and, if someone does seem a little off I guess I seemed like a safe person to talk to.
In a world full of SEC football fans (all other conferences are weak and "I can't believe everyone doesn't watch college football") there are not a lot of people who don't look like brooding convicts or Navy Seals...although I have been called a few animal nicknames...(Ox and Circus Bear to name a couple) but never a SEAL
"Yay! I'm for the other team."
Re: Learned to Like It
Ox is an excellent animal nickname; indeed it is my own animal nickname for myself because I feel like mule is too depressing. Ox seems powerful and it might even be, technically, a yak?
The ability to talk to anyone is a very good example of something that you might not start off valuing but then learn to love. Good work, you should in fact be congratulating yourself on this - a lot of people would like to have that ability and struggle in vain for it!
The ability to talk to anyone is a very good example of something that you might not start off valuing but then learn to love. Good work, you should in fact be congratulating yourself on this - a lot of people would like to have that ability and struggle in vain for it!