Like Falling Off a Bicycle
Call it a calling, a gift, a natural affinity. Whatever you label it, some people have innate talent, making them able to easily achieve something that might take others days or months or years to obtain through practice. Growing up, I was fortunate enough to pick up some skills rather effortlessly. In fifth grade, I began joining the grade level above me for math. In middle school, my band teacher fawned over my French horn performances (no matter how painful it is to admit I played that instrument). By my senior year of high school, I was going to the local university for my English courses. I was not a prodigy by any means, even if my ego rivaled one’s.
Natural skill certainly supported me during my childhood and adolescence. It gave me self-confidence and a level of self-respect. That said, an inborn ability does not replace hard work and practice, and talent only travels so far. The supposed math genius in me hemorrhaged and died when calculus infected the previously simple and sweet equations. I abandoned the French horn soon after it became apparent that practicing in class was not enough to keep up with the rest. When my undergraduate career threw me into an ocean of accomplished writers, I fled to shore and hid from writing for years, fearing my best was someone else’s average.
Now that I’m older and unbearably more mature, I can recognize that any initial skill I have is a good launch pad for future improvement. All talent can be fostered, and if there is a peak to how much an ability can be improved, I can make Editor One cover up my limitations. With my YouTube videos, I learned pretty quickly that I would have to rely on gained experience instead of my God-given birthright to become a viral internet sensation. Each video is a lesson, something I have regurgitated in almost every one of these video journals.
ClusterPuck 99 proved to me that occasional practice is not a sufficient pathway to success. In the six weeks between my last Isaac video and this one, I avoided my recording equipment, reasoning I could take a break while the Namco video was being edited. During that time, any and all skill I had dried up and mummified, so my initial takes of ClusterPuck were not much more than me moisturizing myself while I mumbled and stumbled and cursed and cried. It wasn’t pretty, but now that I’ve posted this, I feel turgid once more.
You know the drill at this point. Shoot me some shit or keep it to yourself if that’s your fetish. I’m GoNNA make me some videos.