I have an instinct for quitting. Seinfeld's George Castanza put it best when he said, "I'm a quitter and I'm good at it." That's me!
My earliest recollection of my special instinct goes back to early childhood. I was into coloring. When my picture wasn't turning out like the masterpiece I had envisioned, I would press the crayon down on the soft page of the coloring book and scribble back and forth violently until the picture was covered with one solid color. I often pressed so hard that the crayon would break. And then I'd walk away. Who wants to color with broken crayons anyway?
Quitting came naturally when I practiced the piano as well. When I wasn't able to play a piece perfectly, I would spread my fingers out like two five stars and begin to bang on the keys. After several loud bangs, I stormed away from the piano. Who cares, I thought. I'll learn it another time.
As I got older, I was known to quit with a dramatic flare like the time I was losing in a game of Chess to my cousin. I knew she was winning and (as I recall) she was being irritating about it so with one beautiful, swift move, I swiped my forearm across the board and watched as the Queen, King and all the King's men flew off the board. "I quit," I yelled. (Surprisingly, we can laugh about it now.)
Other times, I quit quietly. Like the time I decided to cross-stitch Rainbow Row, a famous row of pastel-colored houses on a quaint street in Charleston SC. I bought everything I needed. The white cloth with the tiny, little holes for the stitches, the numerous bundles of thread, the proper needle and a little brace thing that was required for the project. I got as far as a bush and lost interest. Today, the project is packed in a box in my basement in some unmarked box.
Coming off the holidays, I have been slow to sit down and face my blog. Quitting after such a long break would have come naturally to me. However, thanks to the support from my family and the encouragement from many dear friends, it wouldn't have come easy to me.
I'm happy to be sitting with my fingers on the keyboard. I can't quit. I don't want to this time. It's a good thing that I didn't make a New Year's resolution to keep writing my blog. You can imagine the fate of those.
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