I have no expertise in anything

As I sit here I realize that I have no concrete knowledge in anything. I’m no music expert. I don’t know anything about film. I don’t have expertise on wine or food or travel. I’m no crafty genius when it comes to knitting or sewing or any of those “womanly” kinds of things. I’m no aficionado on anything, that’s for sure.

I mean, I can do several things “pretty” well but I’m not an expert at any one thing and I’ve realized lately that this kind of bums me out. Everyone seems to have their niche except me. I have a friend who’s a DJ and has a vast knowledge of music. Mr. Man is a computer expert and knows endless volumes of knowledge about video games. Other friends are experts at painting and crafting. I even have a friend who’s an expert at bargain shopping… (which I admit I’m pretty good at, but no expert)

I wish I was one of those smarty-pants people that could rattle off movie quotes from Kevin Smith movies (which for some reason seems to be “The Thing” to do among Mr. Man’s friends and I just don’t get why) or any movie for that matter. It would be cool to have long and drawn out conversations with my friends about music… But it seems that whenever I start to get any kind of passionate conversation about music, it’s in a genre that the other person/people I’m talking with doesn’t care about and the conversation goes stale. I can’t talk to any of my girl-friends about knitting or sewing or any of those girly things that they all do so well because I’m not good enough at any of them to venture in to conversation much further than “I can purl now” or “I know how to hem pants!”

I know nothing about wine, so I can’t talk to anyone on my dad’s side of the family. I EAT a lot of food, but I’m no expert on cooking, preparing or serving it. Occasionally I can have an intelligent conversation with my aunt or my cousin about the vegetables I roasted or how I found this really cool new seasoning… But anything fancy, nope… I stop at simple cooking.

I drink a lot of tea… But my knowledge of it goes no further than knowing that Earl Gray is flavored with Bergamot oil. Until a few years ago, I didn’t know that bergamot oil was a citrus flavor. I didn’t care. Earl Gray was just “yummy”.

I’m passionate about my animals but when anyone talks to me about animal rights or animal welfare I get freaked out because I feel guilty for not being so passionate about it. I’m not anti-fur or anything extreme like that. I can give you my opinion on how I think animals should be treated, but am I going to go stand on a street corner in Flint or Detroit and protest? No… I just don’t have it in me. I treat my animals well and that’s about that.

So all of these things that I’m NOT good at gets me thinking… What am I good at? There has to be something. Can anyone tell me? Because I’m not naturally seeing myself as an expert at any one thing. And then I ask myself, do I need to be an expert at something? Or is being “pretty good” at a bunch of things sufficient?