The Gifted Child

I am incredibly gifted. No, no don't leave yet - I promise I'm not totally conceited. See, I don't mean that I'm gifted intellectually, although I did endure years of gifted classes in my adolescence after completing a puzzle in record time when I was six (I SWEAR this was what was on the gifted test in first grade). See, although I'm no slouch in the smarts department, what I'm particularly gifted at is taking something that others would see as an opportunity and turning it into something terrible and fear-inducing. Basically, I am a big scaredy-cat.

For example, about two weeks ago I was asked by a senior associate at my firm if I wanted to travel to North Carolina to meet with a client. Of course I said yes - you ALWAYS say yes when a senior associate asks you to do anything. Immediately after saying yes, however, I began to freak out. There were SO MANY things that could conceivably go wrong. I could miss my flight and look irresponsible to the associate, I could embarrass myself in front of the client by not knowing what the hell I was talking about, I could forget to get some pertinent information and have wasted firm money, I could get lost in North Carolina and accidentally stumble into some Duke bar (shudder). See? So many AWFUL possibilities.

Eventually I got a grip and realized that this trip was not something to be feared, but something to be EXCITED about. I mean, as far as I know, I was the first first-year associate to get asked to go on a work trip. I mean, talk about an opportunity -sure, I could screw up, but I could also pull it off and look pretty rockstar.

So, I packed my bags and hopped on the plane...and everything went great! No flights were missed, no huge faux pas were made, nobody was disappointed. I survived. Plus, that little ball of fear and insecurity about my capabilities as a lawyer got a little smaller.

Final tally: Adult Baller Wendy: 1, Big Scaredy-Cat Wendy: 0. Gifted IN-DEED.