10 Things I Like About Myself - inspired by Hey, Hollywood

Holly's post, "10 things i like about myself," on Hey, Hollywood really resonated with me. I definitely feel like as a society, we expect women to be both confident/strong and humble/modest. The way we portray these qualities can easily be misunderstood. A woman displaying confidence might be called a bitch, while a woman who has low self-esteem is thought to be humble and modest. 

I have a hard time with self-confidence and I'm not really sure why. My amazing husband tells me I'm beautiful all the time, but I very rarely feel it myself. I take pride in the work that I do and the skills that I have, but I worry that being proud of them will come off as being full of myself to others. I often feel self-conscious, so much so that the rare occasions when I do feel confident always surprises me - it feels weird! 

I decided to follow Holly's post with my own list. Ten things I like about myself, without fear of judgement from others (ok, a little trepidation, but I'm still going to post it!).

10 Things I Like About Myself

1. My artistic skills - I can draw and craft really well. I think I'm good at these things because I love doing them. When I was little I wanted to be an author/illustrator and I still hope to achieve that goal someday. I also love taking photographs and usually like the photos I get, especially macro shots of nature and kitty photos!

2. My writing skills - I love to write! I started this blog as a way to improve my writing skills and to get into the habit of writing on a (nearly) daily basis. I've ended up enjoying blogging a lot more than I expected to and I think part of is because I'm good at it!

3. My sense of humor - You may not know it when you first meet me, but I'm pretty funny (and really goofy). I like making people laugh, especially my husband. I feel like I've failed the day if I don't make him laugh at least once (I don't fail very often!).

4. My 'cat whisperer' skills - I love cats and I think they love me too. I have charmed many a feline, including convincing a sweet cat-boy named Henry who was shy to come in and meet my parents (he was a stray who had been hanging around my parents' house for a few weeks).

5. My eyes - they're my favorite color - green! They're also really good at finding small things and four-leaf clovers!

6. My varied interests - I have a tendency to become obsessed with hobbies or topics that I learn about. In junior high it was birdwatching and ornithology. In high school it was trees. In college it was yoga. Right now it's blogging. I go a little overboard and get zealous, but it shows how passionate I am and I'm glad I can still get fired up about new and nerdy things. I cool off after a few years of obsessing, but I still enjoy my older, less practiced hobbies when I can.

7. My baking skills - I love eating sweets! Since going gluten-free I've begun baking a lot and am usually pleased with the results (Kenneth is too - he's my biggest fan!). I entertain the idea of someday opening a gluten-free bakery!

8. My ability for memorizing/retaining random information - this skill has come in handy so many times! I am very good at learning how to identify birds, trees, other plants and at memorizing natural history information about those species. It makes talking to a park visitor about a bird or plant easy because I know I have all of these interesting facts about White Snakeroot or Carolina Wrens to share with them.

9. My balance - I'm actually a really uncoordinated individual. I have run into/fallen into walls and objects more times than I can count (or apparently remember, I get bruises and scrapes that were definitely made when I walked into something, but I don't remember doing it!). But when I practice yoga I become a flexible, balanced goddess and it feels amazing! My favorite pose is tree pose, just so I can show off standing on one foot.

10. My mad PicMonkey skills - I love taking and editing photos, but I have no idea how to use Photoshop. I use PicMonkey to make adjustments to the exposure, temperature and angle of my photos - sometimes adding extras like filters, rounded corners or a little bokeh sparkle. Almost all of my photos on the blog are edited, though often it's just a slight rotation and cropping. I think I'm pretty good at using the free photo editing software though!