What’s the trait you value most about yourself?
My husband will vehemently disagree with me on this one. In fact, he disagrees with me on this all…the…time. But! I really value my patience. To be fair, I’m not patient about everything. Which is probably why my husband thinks I’m impatient…even though it’s not my fault the self-checkout scanner at our grocery store is so sensitive and yells at me for not bagging fast enough. But it also gets mad if I go too fast!
I really am pretty patient though. Parents used to comment on it a lot when I was a teacher. I feel like I didn’t have a choice though. When you’re a teacher, patience is a requirement. Kids kind of demand it. Obviously there were times when I could feel myself losing my patience, but I didn’t take it out on the kids like some teachers. It also depended on what I was losing patience with…their behavior? Their lack of focus? The fact they still weren’t understanding something I was teaching? When I was a principal, my patience was especially tested. When parents wouldn’t let something go. When I received yet another phone call or email about the same issue from the same parent or teacher. It was pretty much part of the job description to be patient.
Anyway…aside from professional interests, the patience thing is what allows me to have hobbies that are rather slow-paced. And that’s why I value it so much. I love that I can sit for hours and knit or crochet on a project that won’t get done all in one sitting. Knitting/crocheting is very repetitive and some people might find it boring for that reason. Sometimes patterns are complicated and difficult to follow. Some people might lose patience and give up trying. I don’t. I mean, have given up on patterns/projects before. But I always start another one.
It’s the same way with books. I have the patience to read books of any and all lengths. Maybe it’s just the fact that I don’t have a need to do anything that requires a lot of energy. So I have the patience to do slow activities instead.
Regardless of the reason, I’m just glad I have it. I really like making things with yarn and reading good books. It’s just what I do.
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