I never really took notice of this, until the other day, one of my close friends, Morgan, asked me "is there anything you can't do?" She then proceeded to list the many things I enjoyed doing in general and spare time. "You can sing, dance, draw, cook, cut hair.."
I didn't really think of these things as talents. I mean I love singing, but I don't feel I'm that great at it. Many people say I should join American Idol, or become a singer, but that's not something I really want to do in the future; it's not a very idealistic career either.
Dancing isn't really my thing; it's just something I like to experiment with or do when I want to cut loose or have some fun. I'm actually pretty shy when it comes to dancing in front of people, because I feel as if I'll embarrass myself. So, I only dance around friends I'm comfortable with or people who are fun to be myself around.
Drawing, it's something I've done ever since I was little. In the seventh grade, I became interested in Japanese anime and manga. I began tracing random manga characters in the beginning and began watching many animes. Then I started to practice drawing freehand, just by looking at an example and drawing what I see. But I lost interest for both over the summer, before eighth grade.
Cooking has to be one of my favorites, because I love food. I love cooking and baking all sorts of dishes. From full course meals to elegant desserts to simple snacks and appetizers. If you give me a recipe that's not too difficult to follow and the required ingredients, I can most likely make it. My favorite dish to eat and make is chicken fettuccine alfredo. It's absolutely delicious.
I've thought about becoming a chef or baker, but I feel I don't have enough interest to do something in the cooking industry for a lifetime.
Now, cutting/styling/experimenting with hair has been a personal hobby of mine since the seventh grade. Over the winter break of that school year, I got bangs for the first time, I was super stoked. However, my bangs didn't come out very well, since my hair was naturally wavy/straight and since that section of hair was much shorter; my bangs curled a lot. I, then, purchased my first flat iron. It was around $45 from target, meaning: cheap, damaging, and not going to straighten my hair very well. I managed to get my hair semi-straight through the schooldays. Then one trip to Vegas, during spring break 2008, I convinced my dad to buy me one of those expensive, 100% ceramic straighteners from a kiosk in the mall. The brand was 'amika', and it worked wonders. My hair came out pin straight, and I couldn't have been happier. Some time after we came back to LA, I decided to go into my bathroom, straighten my hair, and cut off a lot of my length and add lots of layers and fix my bangs. My hair used to be very long and all the same length, aside my bangs. I had no prior experience or practice with cutting my actual hair other than when I was little and tried to cut gum out of my hair. The ending result turned out really good, and I had a bagful of hair.
I also enjoy practicing photography, even though I'm just an amateur. Whenever I have my camera with me, or I see something really beautiful that needs to be captured onto a still image, I try to to snap a picture. I'd really like to get a professional camera, to expand my photographic abilities, but they're quite expensive. So I'll stick with my compact point-and-shoot digital camera, for now. However, if I were to pursue a career in the photography field, it wouldn't be much of a success financially--unless I were to become a magazine or wedding photographer.
So as you can see, I'm completely lost and unsure about turning my simple hobbies into successful fulltime careers. Hopefully as the days go by, I will find new interests that might just become my dream job.
But until then..
Fare thee well,
Jenna~
