Up in the Sky!

This blog post is in response to Natalie’s 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 4

The last time I wore a cape was about 10 years ago, after my first bike tour from Seattle to San Diego. I’d arrived at my brother’s apartment just in time for a Halloween party. I needed a quick costume so I wore bicycle shorts and jersey and made a cape out of an airplane blanket. On my cape, I wrote SBG in black electrical tape. Super Bike Girl. I thought it was pretty clever for a one-hour costume. Turns out, it was a college party at San Diego State. I was overshadowed by all the girls dressed as Sexy Firefighters or Slutty Cops. My blankie cape didn’t garner much attention.

My superpowers are just that hard to see.

Here are some of my other hard-to-see superpowers.

I’m good at camping, picking a good spot, watching out for myself, finding weird places to sleep, cycling slowly on a very heavy bicycle. I’m a good traveler. I can puzzle out routes, make another plan when my first plan goes wrong, and sleep in uncomfortable places.

I’m adaptable. I’m good in new situations, and going with the flow. I don’t mind being a stranger in a strange land.

I’m good at learning. Doing research. Going deep. Looking at things from different angles. The time I took Amtrak across the US, I gobbled up books beforehand, fiction and nonfiction, about the route, history, geography, and romance of American train travel. I love maps. I love making things out of paper, like collage and cards and scrapbooks. I love comics, reading them and drawing my own goofy beginner comics.

I’m good with kids. I’m good at babysitting. Teaching. Being patient. Thinking like a small person. (In short amounts of time, not all day and all night and every day to eternity.)

I’m good at decorating cookies. Making sandwiches. Cooking for myself. Eating healthy. I am not a terrible knitter.

I’m good at giving massage. I’m good at reading books for hours at a time (which is not a useful skill but I am super good at it).

I’m good at writing. (My mom says so, and she is always right.)(Which can be annoying but not in this case.)

I’m good with words. I enjoy the turn of a well-written sentence. I like languages, even though I have a sad lack of talent for learning Chinese. With patience and humor and some miming, I can usually make myself understood in places where I can’t speak the language.

My superpowers, obviously, should lead me directly into some kind of traveling writer career. Not specifically a travel writer. Let’s keep those options open. A traveling writer. A writer who travels.

Time to make myself a new cape.