Sew It Goes

On Sunday I did something I've never done before: I sewed a button on a shirt.

Yes, it's pretty mundane, but in a weird way it was a big deal for me: I successfully did something that was both practical and had intimidated me for a long time. For some reason, I never learned it back in Home Ec in junior high (or if I did, I had long since forgotten it). And it wasn't something I learned in Boy Scouts either -- you'd think we'd have learned at least basic sewing, considering it could potentially have useful application in both the outdoors and day-to-day life, but I guess obscure knots you'll never use are more important.

Anyway, I had a dress shirt that was missing a button on the front, and since I have to wear dress shirts most days for work, I wanted it to be back in the rotation, so to speak. I thought about taking it to a tailor and having it fixed, but then I thought "This isn't something major like having a suit taken in; I should be able to do this rather than pay someone to do it." Plus, I already had the necessary materials in a storage box in the closet. With a button, black thread, a needle, and a helpful tutorial from eHow, I was set to go. It took a little while, and it wasn't the most elegant sewing in the world, but it got the job done.

I think it's a good metaphor for a lot of things in life: it's something that seems hard at first, and maybe even impossible. But a little bit of preparation and research go a really long way, and before you know it, you'll wonder why something like this ever intimidated you. And the nice thing about confidence is that it builds on itself -- if you can manage to do one thing, you can do the next, and so on and so on (or is that sew on)?