Hidden defects and talents

You know how some people don't realize, for example, being color-blind until well into adulthood, usually because of some kind of test or other circumstance where they suddenly become aware that their vision isn't actually normal? Yes, it does happen.

The same happens with just myopia as well. Surprisingly many people live years with a significant myopia without realizing it (and often only realize when they happen to take a vision test or similar.) It sounds unbelievable, but it does indeed happen. They have just got so used to it that they don't even realize something is not completely right about their vision. (Usually they then become painfully aware of it, especially if they have tried corrective glasses, as the difference is like day and night.)

Oftentimes this happens with hidden talents too. That in itself doesn't sound that surprising, except perhaps with certain kinds of talent. Like singing voice.

I myself didn't realize that I could actually sing somewhat decently until I was well into my mid-20's. This even though I had since childhood been in many situations of group-singing etc. Singing was always very uncomfortable to me, and it felt really forced, and I had a quite horrible singing voice. For that reason I hated singing and almost never participated.

So what was the problem? The problem was that I was trying to sing on the same octave as everybody else. And that was just not the natural octave for me.

At one point I had a friend who sung one octave lower than the normal average male singing voice. You know, that really deep and distinctive bass singing voice. For fun I tried that myself, and to my surprise I realized, for the first time in my life, that I could actually easily reach those notes, and it felt a hundred times more natural and easy. As incredible as it may sound, I had never previously tried to sing that low. I always imitated everybody else, without ever trying something different.

I'm not saying that I have a good singing voice, or a very loud one, but singing one octave lower than the normal male singing voice feels a lot more natural, and I'd say I can sing at least decently at those ranges. This range is a bit unusual because only a small minority of men can even reach those low notes at all.

It's a natural talent (or perhaps physical characteristic) that I didn't know I had until my mid-20's. It's curious, but it happens.