Yesterday, I put the last brick on a 500-piece Lego set. It must have been the first one I assembled in almost 20 years. My girlfriend, who had never built Lego before, was surprised at my ability to quickly spot which parts we needed, how to put them together, and where each next, intermediate piece went on the larger construction. So was I, to be honest.
Having built dozens of Lego sets as a kid, it seems the skills I acquired back then never disappeared. They were just asleep; ready to re-emerge from their nap at any time. Now, I wonder what else is down there.
Could that one good pencil sketch I made when I was 14 still be of service later? Will I ever put the collage-making skills I used to tune my homework planner in high school to some other use? Who knows — but it gives me some sense of comfort and confidence that those and plenty of other tricks are hiding up my sleeve, just waiting for the right challenge to appear.
Writing a CV is hard because you have to dig for abilities you might no longer know are even there — but in life, those abilities will always reveal themselves when you truly need them. Don’t underestimate your slumbering skills.