"I've been doing this since I was..."

Oh how I loathe those words.

I'm admittedly a fan of shows like America/Britain/Canada's Got Talent, and it's many other variations, and I watch it because I really enjoy seeing people sharing their gifts and talents with the whole world. I think it's just awesome when someone comes on stage in front of thousands and just blows them away. I try to imagine what that would feel like, and it's thrilling.

What I don't enjoy, is when you get someone on a show like this who says they started singing/dancing/doing-something-absolutely-ridiculous since they were two or three years old... and they're embarrassingly bad. And I'm not just talking about the people who can't sing to save their lives, I saw one act where this girl was talking about some mystery talent that she'd been working on seemingly since birth, and she gets on stage and starts burping. Albeit it's very loud, and she can burp much better than I can, but seriously, this is a TALENT SHOW, where you get LARGE AMOUNTS OF CASH if you win. Do you honestly believe something like that is better than all the competition out there?

I find that there are only two kinds of people that say this particular phrase, and it's really quite obvious. Some of them were simply born with an innate talent to do something incredible. Others have been led to believe that they are much more talented than they are. How does that happen?

It seems to me that either they've deceived themselves to the point where no matter what other people say they still think they're amazing, or no one close to them has the guts to tell them the truth. And that's sad. Honestly, if I was completely tone deaf, I would not want to find out from Simon Cowell in front of an audience of thousands. Wouldn't you rather be told by a friend what your level of talent was rather than a hyper-critical stranger? You may think it's more loving to hold back all your criticism, but all you're doing is giving them a false image of themselves that's just going to end up hurting them later. When criticism comes from a friend, or family member, it can be given in a gentle way. The person receiving the criticism can actually know that it's not a personal attack against them because it's coming from a friend they trust, and love.

It comes back to that age old question. What's better? A lie that brings a smile or a truth that brings a tear? In my experience, the lie that brings a smile now, will only bring more tears later.


In the end what matters isn't how long you've been doing something, it's how much you've improved over the course of that time, and what kind of results have come out of it. In the case of those people who haven't had to do much work to be amazing, (you've all seen them, these are the ones who actually ENJOYED junior high) the results speak for themselves. I really don't care how long you've been doing it, what I care about is how good you are. You've been singing since you were three? Cool! So have I! I could sing Mary Had a Little Lamb when I was that age, and it probably sounded awful! Does that mean that I'm all of the sudden a super star now because I've had fifteen years of experience? Of course not!

I've been writing stories since I was in elementary school, but that doesn't mean anything at this point in the game. In grade four (If memory serves) I was writing a story about a meerkat, a scientist and who knows what else going on an adventure. Of course my mom said it was great, and I'm sure she could find it somewhere if she wanted to. But really, it wasn't all that great. I wrote something else when I was in junior high, and this story had a little bit more substance - I even made it past 100 pages with that one - but in the end I never actually finished it. I didn't really start writing with the express purpose of being published until grade 11, but even that age isn't very old compared to some writers starting in their senior years.

The difference with this time I think, was I was really determined to get better at this point. I wanted to progress with this hobby, and make it something more than just a pastime. There was also the aspect of perseverance. I was determined to keep going despite how bad I was. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that now I'm a genius writer and you would be a fool not to like my stories, I'm just saying there's a difference between doing something for a long time, and investing yourself in something for a long time. I've been able to sing for a long time, but I haven't poured my time and energy into improving myself in this area for any substantial period of time. Conversely, I haven't really been writing seriously for long, but I've put in a lot of work reading books on writing and practicing my skills to the point where I'm going to try to get published soon.

I'm not even close to being done my journey of becoming a better writer, but I feel like I'm on the right track. (Did you notice how I didn't use a pun there? Do you realize how hard it was for me not to say the write track? :P)

What about you? What have you been doing since you were 'x' number of years old? Do you think it matters how long you've been doing something? What's that one thing you love that's eaten up most of your time over the years?