What's your superpower?

I’m really good at reading mammograms and I’m so glad I’ve been able to make a career out of it. There is an art form in finding patterns in images.

I soak up music knowledge like a sponge. I can tell you about most members of bands and how musical groups came to be and I can usually recognize a song within a few seconds. It always makes me smile when DS (17, currently in a Thin Lizzie stage) says “how do you know that?”

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I am excellent at solving puzzles. I am also good at finding information (probably related to enjoying solving puzzles). I can think several steps ahead.

At work, I was able to determine how to allocate my financial aid budget and came in exactly where I should have been every year. Our CFO was impressed (as he should have been!). It was not an easy feat, since it involved over awarding because students would turn us down. I had a sixth sense about how it would all shake out. Actually, I based it on historical data, but no one seemed to understand how that worked but me!

Ooh, I’m also good at counted cross stitch & cake decorating.

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Finding things. Fixing things. Organizing things.

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At home I’m known as Mrs. McGyver! I can manage to cobble together something from nothing and make it work like it was meant to be that way.

My friends call me the research queen. With the internet, it’s like a magic trick for me. And I love it.

Personally one of my favorites is the ability to multi-task…often 3 or 4 things at a time, and each will be done well. And always on time. I’ve never missed a deadline.

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I am totally uncoordinated, unathletic, and inflexible. However, my entire life I have been able to easily sit in full lotus pose. Something a majority of yoga teachers can’t do.

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Being able to craft letters, testimony and presentations—my 1st draft is pretty close to my final draft. I’m decent at public speaking too but don’t enjoy it as much.

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Oh! That’s my husband’s superpower too! :gift_heart::gift_heart:

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Finding really good VRBOs or Airbnbs for vacation. I also make a mean college spreadsheet. lol

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Thought of another superpower - one that I love having - kid magnet!!

All my life - even as a school aged kid - I seem to have a certain connection with the under age 5 crowd. Whether in line, on a subway, waiting for an appt, whatever - little people seem to gravitate to me and interact without me encouraging it. I’ve had babies reaching out to me from their shopping cart!

Just this morning on the elevator to work it happened. A little girl made eye contact on the elevator, we had just a few words about where she was going (the dentist office!) and when it came time for her to get off the elevator, she grabbed my hand and said “have a nice day” and as the elevator door started to close she looked back at me with the biggest smile!

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Love this thread topic!

I’d say I’m good at (not sure at super power level though!):

  • Research (like so many others who researched our way to CC - me in 2005!)
  • Writing/editing (I like helping people express themselves more effectively when given the chance)
  • Anything involving flexibility (hereditary - can easily do all the usual yoga poses and am trying to challenge self mastering more advanced ones)
  • Helping IRL friends pick outfits that are flattering
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Trip planning
Cooking (not baking, sadly)
Proofreading

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Nothing superhuman level, but some well above average include:

Balance – I have poor hearing, subpar eyesight, and nothing special in other senses… expect balance. Even as a small child, I’d always win any type of contest associated with balance such as seeing who can stand on swinging log the longest, without falling off; or birthday party type contests with standing on one leg. I have poor fine motor control, yet I could naturally ski or waterski without training. Just this weekend, I went on a 17 mile hike in the mountains, with many steep areas, wearing shoes that had ~0 tread. Good balance makes the tread largely unnecessary.

Analyzing Large Amounts of Numbers – I’ve developed a reputation in this area throughout my life. When we need to review log files for our systems at work, which contain thousand of rows x dozens of columns of numerical entries, the logs are sent to me by default.

Winning at Scrabble – I’ve only lost 1 game of Scrabble against human opponents since I was ~14 years old, which makes my win rate far over 99%. In most games, my score is more than double all opponents. I don’t win because of a superior vocabulary. My vocabulary is actually quite weak. When I was in my teens, I scored 500 on CR SAT, primary due to weak vocabulary. Instead my high scores mostly relate to making lots of 2 letter words on high value squares (for example ax + xi, with x on triple, is worth >50 points) or bingos using common suffixes, like “ers” or “ing”.

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Well - H says I have a black belt in shopping. I am good at obtaining scarce items! I am also really good at getting concert and show tickets (Hamilton, Springsteen on Broadway, Taylor Swift) and dinner reservations. I am an excellent cook and baker and I enjoy needlepoint. These aren’t necessarily superpowers but I enjoy doing things that make people happy.

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Napping has been a lifelong talent :grinning:

When I was working, I got pretty good gathering DB2/mainframe data via Brio (and then Congos)……and then slicing/dicing it in various ways with Excel charts. Also could attack a variety or weird assignments. My manager (who was actually in Slovakia but had good command of many languages) would tell people I was his Swiss Army knife.

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I’m a fixer.

Not a handyman type fixer, more a combination of Red in Shawshank and Winston Wolf in Pulp Fiction.

I literally “have a guy” for almost anything if I can’t solve something on my own.

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Researching, organizing, following written or picture directions/instructions

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I have a really good sense of direction. I can usually find my way w/o a map although I do use them since I love them. This also helps in finding lost items or books in the library. I might not remember the title of the book, but I can usually remember which shelf it was on and about where on the shelf and usually can remember what color it was too. If I have seen a lost item in the past I can usually tell my fam where to look for it unless they moved it or buried it.

My DH has the super power of recognizing people. I do not at all. I don’t have full on face-blindness (look it up, it’s a thing), but I am no good at it. On the other hand he is amazing. We went to his hometown for an event recently and he was pretty sure he saw a high school classmate who he hadn’t seen since then who had had plastic surgery. He’ll be able to recognize a kid he went to third grade with and who now has a beard and weighs 250 lbs. He’s always recognizing people on TV and in movies and can recount which shows they were in previously. I can’t do this at all and I can’t remember their names either! I’m a really visual person (see above about finding lost items and library books) but I am terrible at people.

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X2 - I think this is my super power as well!

Reading people. My neighbors/friends now know to trust me on this. I’ve been right about everyone for the last 25 years. I’m always amazed other people don’t notice what I do.

Which goes with my 2nd super power. At work I’m known as the “(insert kid’s name here) Whisperer”. I’m a special ed teacher and many of my kids use alternative forms of communication or are very hard to understand. I’m often called in to solve problems because I tend to be the person who can either understand a student in distress or can figure out the problem.

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I’m good at napping - for example, I can usually nap on airplanes. Comes in handy since I travel a lot for work! I can also nap in cars or on a bus (if I’m not driving, of course).

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