Paper Street

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Credibility: This is purely based on opinion, I have nothing to back me up… though I’m sure somewhere out there a highly elevated professor would agree with me.

I believe that a lot of talents can be learned, and aren’t simply something that one is born with.

I’m going to be using Art and Music as an example for my arguments. For example, a science kid would go up to an art kid and say “Wow, you’re really talented at art. Look at my drawings, they look like crap…”. I would say if that science kid was younger and realised that he or she enjoyed art, and practiced it every day, they would be able to achieve the same level as the art kid. Why? Because that’s exactly what the art kid did, not because of some magical born talent.

So the difference between someone who has a “talent” in art and someone who doesn’t, is that at a young age the art kid had interest in that area and practiced for a long time. I think “interest” and “talent” are very distinctly different, and “talent” is merely a product of one’s “interest”.

Now arguably, and I won’t deny it, there are those who seem to have a “gift” of talent. Okay, lets say Mr. Perfect Pitch was born with the proper conditions where he could learn instruments in a heartbeat… the difference with that is he can skip the “interest” phase and get right to the talent. But this is why I’m not calling it a talent, instead I consider it a “gift”. It’s just a shortcut to the “talent” that everybody can still achieve with determination and hard work.

With the right mindset and determination that one has from an interest in a certain subject, it would influence them into learning quicker and reaching this high level of “talent”. Let me give you a personal example. In grade 8’s time, I would say I could sing to a reasonable degree. It honestly wasn’t anything magical or special where I would consider it a talent. I just was able to hit the right notes in a very small range, no biggie. But then I never sang, even for fun, for years after. So when I sang in grade 10, it sounded like a donkey who got hit by a tractor. But then I discovered how I enjoyed singing, and for a year (grade 11) I used to sing to songs I liked in the privacy of my own home, and kept on singing for my vocal range to increase. And hey, right now I sound ok… not Celine Dion, but the point is I managed to improve my SKILLZ, into what someone would now consider a “talent”. No dear, I’ve worked with my “interest” to getting to this level of “talent”.

Same goes with art. I really, really believe that the only difference between a crappy drawer and picasso, is that picasso actually cared. Now you math kids who hate art and draw skunk crap as a result of trying to draw a beautiful girl… I think that if you had the patience and determination, and a good art teacher, you could actually achieve the level that I’m at. I’m no picasso, so that’s why I think it’s achievable (picasso is pushing it. Heck why am i referencing picasso? DaVinci is more like it.) It’s all about the mind set

Practice makes perfect! Practicing an interest makes it a talent.

Think about it.