So late last night (we’re talking 2am) I went to my husband’s store to help him with a customer’s custom cake order. He was moderately upset because he knew his store’s cake decorator wouldn’t be able to execute the order and that the customer (who was very particular while he took her order) would be unsatisfied and complain/get the cake for free. So he asked me if I thought I could do it and I told him I would give it my best shot, in spite of not decorating cakes for over 4 years now.
My skills were pretty rusty so I was slower than I expected, but I managed to do a passable job. And now, the following afternoon, I just got word that the customer picked up the cake and was very pleased with the end result.
It makes me optimistic about a few things. Clearly I have the ability to lock away some skills and access them after years have passed...which is a really big relief considering I’ve been out of school for my actual career for 2 years and I’m facing the prospect of doing that job again after such a long break. It’s been so long that I think about the tasks and feel completely detached from ever doing them (”I could never do something like that” in spite of quite literally doing those things for two years) but, like cake decorating, I’m hopeful that I have those skills locked away, just waiting for an opportunity to use them again.
