Hmm, Interesting

I decided to go with another NaBloPoMo prompt today. Today's prompt:

What makes you interesting?

Oh good, I need this ego boost today. Except I'm not very good about bragging about myself. Like in job interviews, when I'm asked to talk about my strengths, I feel like I need to qualify everything I say with something like, "Oh, but I'm not all conceited or anything." So dumb. That's why I don't usually get the job.

But okay, here goes: What makes me interesting?

I like to think what makes me interesting is my sense of humor. I have always had sort of a smart-ass sense of humor, because I come from two funny families where you have to cultivate a razor-sharp wit just to keep up. I like that I can use my sense of humor to entertain myself throughout my otherwise boring, housewife schlub existence. I also like to think I can bring a little levity to the boring housewife schlub existences of the other moms around me.

I think I'm funnier in print than I am in real life. I have always enjoyed writing, and I think the ability to construct sentences is the only skill that comes easily to me. Well, that and my mad typing skillz, but typing is kind of a sister skill to writing.

I also have a pretty good memory, but that probably makes me more annoying than interesting, especially in arguments with my husband.

I only have one interesting trick-type skill, and that is that I can say the alphabet backward. My mom claims that I learned the alphabet backward because my kindergarten teacher told our class that she expected us to know the alphabet "backward and forward" and I interpreted this quite literally. I actually recall that I just thought it was pretty cool that my teacher could say the alphabet backward (though she was probably reading off an alphabet strip that was tacked up on the wall behind us), and so I memorized the alphabet backward using an alphabet placemat I ate my breakfast on. Whatever the reason, I learned the alphabet backward, and I learned it for life.

I think I have a few interesting hobbies. I am a fairly competent swimmer, which makes me different from a lot of people. A lot of people are good runners, but struggle to swim very far. I am the opposite.

Another interesting hobby I have is flower-arranging. The woman who teaches me flower-arranging tells me that I have a good sense of balance in terms of how to put flowers together. She also says I have poor floral knife skills, so until I can hire minions to do all my cutting, I probably can't arrange flowers professionally.

I also really like cats, which isn't so much interesting, but ... okay, I don't know where I'm going with this. A lot of people like cats. A love of cats doesn't make me interesting.

In thinking about this particular prompt, I realize that all of us kind of have this need to feel unique, to stand out among all other human beings. I want to think that I am the only person you know who does x or likes y or is good at z. I have not distinguished myself to the point in any area of my life. But I hope I'm just a little bit interesting.

What makes you interesting?