One weird thing...

I have this weird habit that people have noticed at work. I am an incessant doodler. Whenever I am in a meeting or a training session, which is a lot of time, I have to have a note book with me and, at least, two good pens. I start out taking notes as does everyone else. But then, I start doodling. My doodles aren't just stick people or funny animal drawings either. They become these elaborate designs that cover the page, one swirling into the next, until the entire page is covered and there are no more notes.

Now, most people, at first, take my doodling as a sign that I'm bored or not listening to what's going on. That's their mistake. Actually, my doodling is somehow directly connected to how intensely I am listening. I get everything their saying and retain the info better than if I was forced to put the pen down. This is somehow connected to how I remember things too. For example, as some of you know, I have done some acting in my life and with that comes the fact that actors have to memorize lines. Sometimes many, many lines. I discovered very early on that I could memorize my lines easily if I wrote them down. So, I would first sit down with a script and manually write out my lines in a notebook. Next, I would go through the script and read my cue lines and then write my response lines in a notebook. By the time I did both those things, I had a "visual" in my head of the words I was going to speak in the play in my own handwriting in my brain. I then knew my lines. Forever! I don't know why this works for me or when I realized it did but it does...even now.

I've always been a visual learner. If you simply tell me something, don' t expect that I will remember it or learn it. Show me, and I can usually get it. If you give me directions, better write them down or I can't follow them. Write them down and include landmarks I can look for? Even better! Perhaps this is why I have always loved visual art so much.

So there you have it - one weird thing about me. I'm sure there are many other weird things about me but that's fodder for another installment of One Little Polish Girl.