Daily discussion post: superpowers

[magnetic_pole]

Folks, what are your superpowers?

Before you protest that you don't have any, let me assure you that you do--you just haven't thought about them that way. My partner R, for example, can always spot an extra space between words in a page of text. On screen, on paper, doesn't matter. She's pretty amazing at catching typos, too. See? Superpowers.

I have the power of not-getting-lost. Drop me off in a completely new city, and I'll navigate with aplomb. An old housemate of mine has a favorite story about the time a long-distance bus dropped the two of us off at the side of the road in a remote part of Greece. The driver definitely knew where we were going, despite our embarrassing lack of language skills---I'd copied down the name of our destination and showed it to him, and he'd nodded and smiled and helped us put our luggage away. When he stopped the bus and gestured furiously for us to get off, I discovered a superpower I didn't even know I had: navigational skills for the win! We were going to a port city, so we just kept walking downhill until we finally met the water, and from there it was easy to see how to get into town.

I've also got the power to smell food that's bit off, but honestly, that's more a curse than a superpower, so best not to dwell on that one.

So, folks, what are *your* superpower? What can you do that your friends and family generally can't?

Comments

[glass_icarus]

Trivial superpowers that come to mind are reading and typing very fast? xD Outside of school the degree of usefulness varies, but still.

A less-trivial superpower I have is establishing and maintaining boundaries with other people (in the pursuit of a mostly drama-free life, haha). Verbally, through physical space, body language, and whatever else I'm unaware of, I've been successful with most roommates, friends, profs, coworkers, people I've dated, casual acquaintances, and strangers. I think my mom and I are fairly similar in this, though she's better at it; my dad and sister are notably worse at it because they're often bad at saying no to things.

[therealsnape]

Establishing boundaries is a skill that should be on the national curriculum. Such a useful thing to be able to do.

[glass_icarus]

Imagine the syllabus... Boundaries 101: How to nope out of things and hold the line afterward! xD

[jesse_the_k]

I'd honestly pay you hard currency for that course.

[rebeccarobota]

Omg, boundaries are the most important superpower. I didn't get the hang of this skill until well into adulthood.