Raw Talent at its Finest

I am guessing that many of you who saw my daughter Ashley’s avatar got really excited thinking this blog was written by her – but this time it wasn’t written by her, however, it is about her so I thought it would be fitting to use her avatar to go with this story:

Tonight I was sitting down to work on an upcoming charity event which will include a competition in which young people (high school age) coming up with simple business solutions for real-world problems.  The group I am working on it with asked me to get my daughter Ashley’s input on how they should do their design for this event.  They had met Ashley for the first time during a previous meeting I had with them and they were so impressed with her natural marketing abilities and her knowledge of “what’s cool” and how to make something un-sexy sexy, that they really value her input for this upcoming event. 

When I sat down with Ashley to ask for her ideas she immediately got a piece of scrap paper and begins drawing something.  She literally came up with an entire naming idea and logo design in about five minutes!  When she showed me the drawing I was totally blown out of the water by it.  It was PERFECT!  Here is the actual sketch of the design she came up with:

 

WOW!  Are you serious?!?!  Who can bust out talent like that – as if it is no work at all and just naturally comes to her!  One of the people I respect the most in this world once shared a quote with me that fits this situation perfectly :  “The art of craftmanship is making it look easy” -Buddy Stewart.   This was true craftmanship in my opinion.  Ashley then went on to design the entire flyer for them with the event info done all cool and hip and an awesome layout design.  I won’t show you the final product yet because I don’t want to spoil it before the event flyers come out, but I can tell you that it was AWESOME!

My child truly has no idea how incredibly amazing her abilities are.  She has confidence in who she is but she has yet to come to an appreciation of the INCREDIBLE God given gifts she can bring to the table.  I tell her over and over again and she seems to think I only say it because I am her mom.  She genuinely has no idea how much greatness is within her.  I just have to say that being her mother is humbling.  Truly.  To see her raw talent continue to develop and grow is such a blessing to my life.  She is my example and my hero.  The only word I know how to use to describe her is WOW!

There are so many amazingly talented young people in the world today.  They have so many gifts and talents that they are developing.  I hope all of us will take the time to encourage them, to build them up, to help them see what gifts they have been given.  They sometimes need help becoming aware of the gifts they brought with them into this world.  They often need a self-esteem boost that will come as they start developing these talents they have.  We as adults need to do everything we can to help our kids today to come to a recognition that they are absolutely AMAZING, that they can do anything they set their mind to, that there are no limits of what’s possible, that their imaginations are valued, that they never need to feel small…not ever.  Make it a point today to tell a young person how much you feel blessed to have them in your life. 

And if Ashley ends up reading my blog today I want her to know that I am blessed to have her in my life and that I love her to the moon and back!

~Amy

4 Comments

  • Heidi Harrison says:

    Amy,
    This is fabulous. This is also very timely after the morning I had with my absolutely amazing 17 year old.

  • Amy D. says:

    Amy,

    You were 100% right. I expected a message from Ashley when I opened this blog. She is amazing! Thank you for sharing. 🙂

  • Lindee says:

    The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree 😉

  • P. Begich says:

    Only true progression of this World is to encourage and have confidence in younger generation creatiavity by entrusting them in their creativity and vision rather then limiting them. Unfortunately, some “older” folks don’t always get that. Ashley is lucky to have you as mom.

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