Who am I really?
My hidden talents
Well hello, readers! I’m Rayna. (RAIN-Uh) No worries if you read it incorrectly, I have yet to meet anyone who has pronounced it correctly the first time they see it!
I wanted to respond to this prompt by Christine Graves for multiple reasons, the most relevant one being, I am not allowing my fear of rejection to keep me from sharing my talents anymore!! So here it goes!
I have been writing since, well, nearly since I can remember. My mom was always so proud of my talent. In elementary school, a short fiction story I wrote was published in our school scholastic paper. The prompt was what we would do if food fell from the sky instead of rain — my mom thought my response was absolutely, hilariously genius and never missed a chance to tell someone about it!
I began writing poetry after the pain of my mom’s addiction became too much to hold inside but too confusing to make sense of out loud. Those pieces were too heartbreaking for her to share. It was the same for me. My writing and poetry have always stayed on paper in a tote under a bed. I have never posted my creations online or shared them with others, they were too honest, they were a secret door into the vulnerable me that had to stay hidden and until recently that’s where they have been, locked away behind this door until I found the key. Although the exposure of this talent is a journey you all have been a part of so far!
On to the next!
Drawing! Drawing is my favorite but most closely held form of expression. I did not even discover this talent until I was about 15 years old. I was taking a pottery class in high school and my teacher said something that just resonated with me and I still live by it with all forms of art I utilize today,
In art there are no mistakes!!!
The artist may know that a line, or smudge, mispelled word, or whatever it is is not suppose to be there, but the person looking at it has no idea what your intention was for that piece, to them everything on they see is suppose to be there.
I just ran with it and practiced a lot, of course, I only use pen when I draw, and eventually found my niche. I started with just abstract and got my first design tattooed at 17 years old, on my entire back. I began drawing more tattoos for family members, words, quotes, sayings, practiced a lot of lettering. I have about 15 plus tattoos on me now all of which I have designed and drew myself. My sister is also my walking canvas! I found that I really love drawing realism and abstract mixed as well as flowers, sea creatures, graffitti and more!
Last but of course not least, the talent I keep most hidden — singing. My sacred form of expression. It completes the theme of my talents. I remember growing up and my mom would show me off to her friends. She would put on Mariah Carey, or Alicia Keys, oh gosh, and Brandy! I sang my heart out in those days in front of all her friends, it didn’t matter.
Somewhere along in life, after so many hardships and trauma, I have just kept it to myself. Other than my little sister, my mom, and my children, I don’t sing in front of anyone. I have terrible anxiety when it comes to public speaking or anything that has to do with being in front of large groups, and singing casts a large spotlight on you. My catastrophizing, mind-reading thinking patterns have a hay-day with that spotlight. This is hopefully a talent I can embrace soon, but only time will tell!!
Thank you for reading just tad bit more about me!! I hope you learned something new! Until next time!
For more of my own work you can visit my publication or page shown above or by clicking here. I hope I can inspire you to find your unique and unscripted way with words ;)
If you missed them here is the link to her last weeks prompts for March!
Make sure you check out this week's prompts as well in the link below!
