Gifting Someone a Talent & How to Give More than an Ordinary Gift

Gifting Someone a Talent & How to Give More than an Ordinary Gift

This post was written for Creative Nonfiction in The Ink Well: Prompt #9 Gift. In this personal true story, I will share with you how I found a new talent and a new hobby thanks to the guitar I was given as a gift.

I was in my early teens, I think I was 13 or 14. At that time, I didn't have any passion other than playing ball in the street and being mischievous with my friends. And it can't be for a child of that age. And it shouldn't be. This is exactly the age of getting dirty on the street...

My birthday has come. Today was an important day for me and I remember it very well. I remember that when I left my room for breakfast, only my mother and my sister, who was five years younger than me, were at home.

There was milk on the table and my favorite breakfast, chocolate cereal. I remember eating a big bowl and then, of course, filling up a second one and eating until my cheeks were full. It was going to be my birthday in the evening. I had to be strong. I thought we would have fun, guests would come and everyone would play games with me.

Afterwards, my mom and I decided to decorate the house. We took my sister with us. I remember walking down a cobblestone street and buying balloons from an ornament seller. Although I don't remember what the man looked like, the shop was very crowded.

When we entered that shop, my little sister started crying. My mom bought her something as a gift to stop her crying. I don't remember what it was. Then we started walking home and we saw many of our acquaintances on the way.

We came home and started decorating quickly and within an hour or two the decorations were finished. We hung balloons, put sticky decorations on the walls, put some ribbons on the table, hung ribbons on the door of the entrance of the house. I even helped my mom prepare the cakes and pies.

When evening came, our relatives started to arrive. My father came back from work. But he hid something behind the outer door so I wouldn't see it. I didn't see what he hid until after the gifts were given.

People gave me their gifts and finally my father gave me his gift. I was surprised.
A guitar?
But I didn't know how to play the guitar?
It didn't matter.

For days after that, the guitar stayed outside and I never put it back in its case. I gave my parents a headache every day. I started to play ridiculously irrelevant music until the strings broke. I started to imitate the guitars playing in the songs I heard on TV.

This helped me develop my ear for music.

When the summer came, I went to a course given by the state. There were people much older than me there and I felt very small and bad. When winter came, I left that course and started taking lessons from another old uncle. He was a very kind and sweet man.

He taught me how to play the guitar. But he didn't teach me sheet music. He taught me to feel the guitar. He taught me to play what I heard, what was where on the guitar, what sound to make and how to make it sound.

It took me a long time to learn the notes and I was surprised when I heard the rumor that James Hetfield, the lead singer of Metallica, didn't know how to read sheet music.

Years passed and I saved my money and bought myself an electric guitar.
We started playing music in the school band, I started my own band and we started going to music studios and having fun.

This guitar, which was given to me as a gift at a young age, pushed me to spend time with my friends who were interested in the same quality of music instead of spending time with punks on the street.

After all these years, I have painted the guitar that was my first gift and hung it on my wall. It has a special place in my heart because I learned a new skill thanks to that.

I think everyone should think about such things when buying a gift, even if it is small.

Instead of buying a t-shirt, you can buy an ukulele.
Instead of buying a coffee mug, you can buy a flute.
Instead of buying a pair of pants, you can buy a painting set and canvases.
You can buy sports equipment, even if he/she doesn't do that sport, you can make him/her use it and get enthusiastic about it.

Believe me, it is not difficult to give a child or a teenager the skills they need for self-development.
Examples can be multiplied.

Thank you very much for reading, I hope you liked it.