Golf! Have tried, retried, practiced, and taken countless lessons at different life stages (high school, college, early career, mid-career) and it just doesn’t “click” for me.
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If it involves holding something while hitting a ball (golf, tennis, ping-pong, softball), I’m terrible at it. And because I’m not competitive at all, getting better at it isn’t all that motivating. I do have a very good sense of body alignment and muscle control and can play soccer, so it’s not that I’m not athletic, it’s the damn stick that does me in.
I’m musical, but can’t sing or play string instruments. Give me a reed, brass or piano and I’ll do better than average.
I’m dyslexic (not diagnosed until college) and have incredible spatial ability. I can see things backward, forward, upside down, sideways. I can tell you what will fit where. I can build things without directions. But, I can’t remember the order of things. I took until middle school to learn left from right and in which order the days of the week or months of the year went in. The month/day/ year format ( 8/25/24) made no sense to me. Although much improved, to this day my family and co-workers do not trust me to relay the date of an appointment to them. I never, ever learned my locker combination and basically just knew which kids to follow in highschool to get to the next class. You would not know any of this if you met me now but I do use a lot of strategies that I didn’t have back then. I’m a little nervous that my school is going to a 6 day schedule this year, but I also never know what specials or related services are on which days without consulting my schedule, so I guess it won’t really matter.
I’ve also been completely incapable of learning another language. My grandparents spoke Yiddish, which I can understand a bit of, but not speak. Hebrew school was a disaster and I cheated my way through French in high school (back then it was more written quizzes than having to actually do any speaking).
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I had to take engineering drafting in college. I have no trouble reading blueprints. However, I absolutely lack any drafting ability. I tried really hard, but I was just awful. I am pretty sure that the prof only (barely) passed me because he didn’t want to see me in his class again (small school, required class, and he was the only prof teaching the course).
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I’ve never found a sport I liked, either to play or to watch. I was a gymnast in high school but didn’t like it enough to be competitive. I don’t think I’ve exercised since.
I was in a choir during high school and college but not good enough to solo. I have a “background” voice.
I wish I could knit or crotchet. I just can’t. My hands get all tangled up.
It is probably the same reason I am not a piano player, even with several years of lessons as a kid. Our church organist lived across the road from us. We mowed her yard and she gave us lessons. I learned how to read music from those lessons and could play a little bit for pleasure, but not really. My fingers kept getting tangled up. My D was an excellent pianist and played for our church while in high school. She was always surprised when I would know that she was making something up and not playing what the music in front of her said. I don’t think she has played for years, though.
I am not an athlete at all, every one else in my family is.
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I call these “utensil sports” anything with stick, club, bat, etc…
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Snorkeling. I just don’t like it. I’ve tried it several times, with my own gear and with other’s gear and there’s always something that isn’t fitting or working right. So while others are looking at cool fish, I am trying not to drown while fixing a mask or fin issue. I also don’t like the feeling of water seeping into my ears when my head is half in the water. The only way I’d try it again is if I can walk in from shore vs. jumping off a boat. When we’re on vaca and others in my group are snorkeling, I just float around with my lifejacket and a noodle.
I love skiing and was a regular growing up. Then I had a 20-year dry spell. When we did a family vacation to a ski resort in Canada, I picked it right back up! I was very proud of myself and my kids were impressed too! A friend recently had a freak ski accident while trying to avoid a child who fell in front of her, and shattered her leg. Seeing her long and painful recovery, I’ve become hesitant to continue to ski now that I’m in my mid-50’s.
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Ooh! I don’t like snorkeling either! I hate not being able to breath through my nose.
But, I adore skiing although I’ll admit to being more cautious.
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Drawing. Completely hopeless. Plus quite a few other things already mentioned (sporty activities and new languages for example).
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I had a little accident skiing several years ago, and that made me think about whether I liked skiing enough to risk having to recover from an accident. I haven’t skied since, but if someone offered me slope side accommodations at Breckenridge or Tahoe, I might give it a try. I was never a good skier, but I enjoyed being out and about on the mountain.
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Just have to say, I love this thread! What great laughs, especially on a Monday morning!
Oh gosh yes… drawing. I am hopeless. H on the other hand is quite artistic. When the kids were little… at restaurants, we would draw on the back of the paper placemats while waiting for our food. I always had a purse full of crayons, lol… H would draw for older S, I would draw for younger S - and the kids always drew stuff themselves… But one day, H drew some animal, and I drew a horse. Younger S started crying at his drawing. He didn’t want me to draw anything for him anymore. And a horse was my best animal!!!
And another funny drawing story… H drew some picture for older S at a favorite restaurant of ours. The next time we went in, it was hanging up on the wall! I guess they thought a kid did it!
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Ballroom dancing - the footwork, what to do with my hands. Fred and Ginger might as well be aliens from another planet.
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No one has said cooking or baking yet?
I can also relate to the drawing and the downhill skiing. Cross country, yes, but the day I tried downhill is etched in my memory as one of the most miserable days of my life!
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So, so many…
the only thing I love about golf is driving the golf cart with a cooler in the back.
I turned into a decent skier pretty fast but the fear factor that I’m gonna break something and the fact I hate the cold killed that.,
Gymnastics was a joke. I actually ran up to the vault, stopped, climbed over it and hopped back down. The teacher thought I was kidding but I wasn’t. None of that was ever going to happen.
I surprisingly turned into a pretty good tennis player. One of the few sports I really enjoyed and practiced regularly. Archery I was my best and shooting. Decent at darts. Maybe I’m just good at hitting targets.
Scuba–wanted to but could never clear my ears. Not worth it. Snorkeling though was lots of fun especially looking for scallops. Since we were visiting dive shops at the time I got fitted properly for a good mask and other equipment (it makes a difference).
Handiwork–I can do crochet and knit some but it’s just boring. I did needlepoint but found buying finished pieces that I liked was even better. I did cross stitch once but started making the stitches 2-3 times bigger just to get it over with.
Sewing–LOL. Equipment really does make a huge difference. I like craft projects like machine embroidery and easy fast projects. Other stuff is a slog but it probably stems from home ec trauma…
I never got piano lessons either. We didn’t have the room for a piano. Every kid I know hated piano lessons so I certainly did not feel deprived at the time. As an adult I got a really nice keyboard and just love it. I found someone who teaches keyboard (not piano–huge difference in approach) and while my teacher moved and I only got a few lessons in it really opened up a lot of music to me. Highly recommend!
…
Sailing–I took lessons twice. The first time I flipped the sunfish over (fortunately shallow water). I took it a second time just to prove I could make it through… I’m more of a dry land person.
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Handwriting (cursive). My handwriting is atrocious. For years, I “drew” my writing laboriously so it would look like the alphabet example running atop the blackboard, but it took too much time and effort to sustain. Once out of Catholic school, I printed exclusively. I still draw my first name on a signature, but my last name is just a capital letter followed by a slightly wavy line. I always envied my mother’s flowing script. Even DH has a nice hand.
Probably should add “cursive” to the something our kids don’t believe we had to do in school thread.
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Oh my handwriting is notoriously bad. Even I can’t read what I write. I recently wrote a check to a friend and the bank refused to cash it - my handwriting on it was so bad they thought it was fraudulent.
My 4th grade teacher (back in the 60s) told my parents don’t worry, she will learn to type. Now, I type almost everything and type very fast! I make notes to myself on both my phone and my computer, never handwrite them.
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Knitting, dancing (I have the home movies to prove it), swimming (as a child with allergies, I simply couldn’t breathe).
I encouraged my kids to sign up for all sorts of things, especially one week themed day camps. Most were just short term interests, good intro to the topic.
Anything with music or the arts—I guess I am so left-brained it’s not funny–my AP Chem students would tell me I was having too much fun showing them how to solve multi-step acid-base equilibrium problems!!!
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Swim Team. I grew up with a pool in my backyard, so always swam and swam a lot. I thought I was pretty good at is as I could swim for what felt like forever. But I had never been on a swim team and never had any formal training or coaching. I tried out for swim team in high school and was one of only three people cut from the team. I was terrible compared to everyone else.
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Downhill skiing. Lessons did not help. But, I love snowshoeing.
Cooking- I can follow any recipe but terrible at whipping up something on my own.
Dancing, hiking, jogging, piano, sewing I am not too bad at doing.
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