Neatness

This past weekend I was able to stay pretty busy with parties and activities that I was co-planner for. Among them was a little party celebrating Pi Day, the Ides of March, square root of 10 day (I may be the only person who celebrates that), and St. Patrick's Day. (I'll probably share pictures and details in a later post.) As we split up the assignments for the party, I decided to take on the task of invitations.

It was actually a lot of fun making them! I made up a silly poem about all the holidays on one side of the invitation and had a four-leaf clover on the other side with party details. But as it came time to put it all together, I came to a sad realization:

I didn't know how to use glue anymore.

I mean, of course I knew the basics, but I forgot what kind of quantities are needed for thin pieces of paper. Despite my best efforts, each invitation turned out a various stage of gloppy. Then, I decided that the invitation needed glitter glue. Turns out I knew even less about that -- how long it takes to dry, how to make it actually follow the shape of the clover, etc. At the end, each invitation looked basically like a kid in grade school could have made it. (I sure got a lot of points for creativity, though!)

Seeing my masterpieces took me back to the end of 4th grade. We were doing some project on pioneers which involved neat handwriting and good drawings of covered wagons and lots and lots of glue. "You need to practice being neat," said Mrs. Bolton. "5th graders are always very neat."

Except, we weren't. Throughout the year, we would be reminded, "Practice your neatness. Middle-schoolers are always very neat."

Except, we weren't. Furthermore, we hardly ever even used glue anymore. Handwriting counted for less and less as we started to turn in typed essays more and more. By the time I got to college, I only had one class where neatness really counted, and only one class where I ever used a glue stick (working on lab reports).

So, were all of those elementary school art projects a waste of time? Oh, probably. I mean, I clearly forgot everything I ever learned, and I clearly haven't used glue much since then.

But then, I guess it taught me something -- "Neatness counts . . . eventually." Maybe not in 5th grade, or 6th grade, or college, or being a mom, but eventually it will count toward my grade. So it's a nice goal to work toward, but nothing to get hung up on.

In the meantime, I will just rack up as many points for creativity as I can.