Renaissance Woman

​That’s me, a Renaissance Woman. I am a Renaissance Woman. I’m not claiming Leonardo da Vinci's level of genius, but how else can you describe someone who takes on the number of different things that I do and does them with success? 

via GIPHY

​Let’s consider just a sampling from the four years since I moved to Arkansas:

• I taught GED to court-ordered adolescents.
• I ran a 50K and won first in my age group.
• I made a wooden lamp, a crochet cardigan, a stuffed pig, a chameleon, & a ghost, along with multiple hats, all from scratch.
• I ran a theater camp hosted at the Kennedy Center. Twice.
• I had a bumper year of butternut squash that included one that won the biggest prize at the county fair.
• I conducted professional job interviews with sound engineers.
• I learned to play Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons.
• I wrote dozens and dozens of fictional stories, nonfiction articles, and highly professional emails.
• I continue to gain more experience working with kids who are struggling.

This is a ginger root I grew from grocery store ginger. I also made homemade ginger beer from my own ginger bug as part of my experiments in home fermintation.

​This may sound boastful, and perhaps it is a little. That’s not my motivation, though. My true goal, if you haven’t guessed, is to boost myself up. I’m grappling with the long-term effects of some recent blows to my psyche and the old insecurities that were stirred up as a result. (See “Ghost Stories;” I may or may not update later.)
 
More immediately at hand, however, is I’m feeling way outside my comfort zone as a running coach and as an art teacher, while simultaneously knowing I can do it. I don’t have to be the best, I just need to be. Right now, though, I feel disengaged and tired. It’s frustrating because the desire is there. I’m just not sure I’m adequate. I have so many gaps in my knowledge and experience.
 
But I’m a Renaissance Woman. I know how to try and make mistakes, and show others how to try and make mistakes.

via GIPHY