putting it on paper

Last week I had the opportunity to help out my mom.  Now, my mom does everything for my brother and me, even when we live on the other side of the world.  She always, always, always goes above and beyond.  So for me to help her was a real opportunity.  Kitty has a background in special education but stopped teaching to raise my brother and me.  She just found out about an opportunity to jump back into things again at a local school district.  She was so excited and launched right into preparing her resume and cover letter.  

After receiving an emailed copy, I knew I could help my mom look really stellar.  So I highjacked the project and pimped out her resume.  I chatted with her to learn more about her work experience, tinkered with fonts and formats until I got it squared away.  At the end of the day, we were on the phone and I could tell we were equally giddy.  Her career, which she had not thought much of, suddenly looked phenomenal in her eyes.  She saw how much she had done, how varied her tastes have been, and how qualified she really was for the job she was applying for.

My smiles were twofold.  First, I had made my mom really happy.  Listening to her, I knew that when she got called into interview, she would absolutely nail it because of the renewed confidence I heard.  I didn't just pimp out her resume, I souped up her mojo as well.  Kitty always does that for me and for once I got to do it for her.

Secondly, I smiled for myself.  I had created something absolutely beautiful, a resume nonetheless.  I just kept looking at it and how quickly I had transformed the document.  The change was intuitive, knowing what would look best and how to highlight my mom's strengths.  The fonts were stunning and simple changes like italics made all the difference.  While it was Kitty's career that was being highlighted, it was my own skill set that created the resume.

I keep thinking about that day and how proud I was of that resume.  Just like Kitty needed to be reminded that she was a great candidate for the job, I needed to get my groove back.  I learned how much I love paper and stationery.  I love it.  Seriously, it's a disease.  But helping Kitty reminded of how many invitations I've worked on in the past.  Some entirely of my own creation, others collaborated with crazy talented individuals.  It was a knock in the head for me to realize that for me "art" is not just what I create with a paintbrush in hand.  It's lettering, invitations, finely formatted documents, and a well folded notecard.  My talents are far more varied than I gave myself credit for.

How often do all of us experience this?  We think we don't have a talent because we can't sing or draw a straight line?  Talents are so much more than that.  As I look at Mr. F's resume I find a skill set so vastly different from my own.  He knows how to do things I can't even fathom.  Same with my mom! I don't know if I'd have the patience or continual stream of creativity necessary to be a special education teacher.  But how grateful I am that there is someone who can!  We all have unique skills and talents that make this world go round.  How truly wonderful that we do and that we are not required to know how to do everything.  I can work on stationery while Mr. F crunches numbers and Kitty goes to class.


the invitation is for a program I never had a chance to put together due to our move.  I hand painted the background and later added the text.  makes me sad I never got to use it...