I wanted to share a strategy for community building and preparedness. Something to start with is to come up with a list of your skills, what you are good at. Think outside what professionalism tells you is a skill, outside academic honors, and certainly outside what money tells you is a skill.
A skills list is something that we need for building community. Write them all down. And don’t forget about the many different areas of your life. In your home, with your friends, family, when you are eating, resting, when you are reading, thinking, when you are alone.
For instance, if I were to name three things that I am good at they would be that I am good at cooking but only when it is Korean food. I am good at fixing electronics. And I am good at making people laugh, although you probably would not know that from my presence here.
It is also important to know, that often we are good at things but do not even yet know it.
So make a list of what you do know, and think of all the things. Some of my friends are great at making plants and trees grow, at singing, at making paper, great with children, arranging a space to make it feel like home, and even making lists of lists.
When you start making that list, you realize you are good at much more than what society has told you is valuable. All of us have skills, and all of us need to build our communities. One of the ways we start is by understanding what our skills our so that we can share them and learn from others, too.
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