I got the DVD for Christmas but didn’t actually watch it until today, with my mother and sister. It was fantastic. If I wasn’t such a picky eater I could definitely see myself choosing to cook my way through a cookbook… and, knowing myself very well, I could also see myself failing not long into the endeavor! Like Julie, I too am a bit of a quitter. Unintentionally, most often. I simply get distracted by another interest and, as Anais Nin says, absorb myself in it. Completely absorbed until another sparkly new hobby comes along.

But I don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing. It’s like Girl Scouts. Bear with me here, I do have a point. There was a badge book, and there were badges in several different categories. One was science-y, and one was artsy, and one was outdoorsy. Each category had a badge called a “Dabbler.” It was meant to give you an idea of what the category was by letting you dabble in different things. One from column A, B, C, D, and E and voila! You’ve earned yourself a badge! Other badges were all about one thing, like playing an instrument or learning to navigate your way to a campsite with a compass and a map. But the dabblers were more exciting.

I think in life, I am a Dabbler. I like having lots of interests. I may not be particularly great at any one, but if I get bored I can easily move on to something else. And maybe come back to the first one later. And there’s nothing wrong with that. When I was in elementary school I was always first in my class. As I got older I slid toward the middle – I was still smart, but so were the new kids in my classes as my schools got bigger. And I learned to be okay with that. Like Christine Kane talks about, it’s okay to be an imperfectionist. To do things and not be perfect, but it’s still good. Because nobody’s perfect, and you can’t just let fear of being imperfect stop you from enjoying life.

On April 10, 2010 (technically yesterday because it’s after midnight here) I turned 28 years old, and I know I still have a lot of life ahead of me, but I think figuring out that it’s okay to be imperfect, and it’s okay to be a Dabbler, is a pretty big lesson that I’m glad to have learned early on. Because I have a feeling there are a lot of people older than me that still haven’t gotten that yet… but don’t worry, I’m not perfect and I know I still have a lot of lessons left to learn, many that I’m sure there are others my age who have already learned them!