All I Know About Balloons, I Learned From YouTube.

We live in a wild time. All that you want to know, didn't know you didn't know, and wish wish you could forget, is at your finger tips. The internet can be a tool for good, evil, or tomfoolery. I recommend the very-most latter.

Everything I know about balloons I learned from YouTube. I know,;it seems unlikely. But where there is will, time, aptitude and a half-empty bag of balloons, there is a way - or so it seems. This is the (brief) story of my way.

In the winter of 2011, my mother's younger sister (my aunt, for clarity's sake) lent us her children. Being of sound mind and body, but with little patience and desire to interact with children, I devised a way out. And at the time, I believed it full-proof. God laughs when you make plans.

With just a few minutes of YouTube study, the sword and poodle balloons were no longer a mystery to me. And following a few failed attempts to inflate a Qualatex 260 (don't buy anything else as a newbie), I had the balloon equivalent of an over-sized and uncoordinated high-school classmate that could never quite figure out how to play sports...in balloon-dog form.

Fido forgave me; so did Spots, Patches, and an array of similarly deformed latex canines. Before I hit triple-digit fails (not a long time in the balloon-arts world), I had a passable animal. And that's where this started.

And here comes the "ask." Take a true, authentic, unembarrassed moment to think about something that (1) you do well, (2) that no one else [you know] can do, and (3) brings joy to 99.999999999% of people you meet. If you have something that meets all those criteria, you get why I bring a child's backpack, stocked with balloons, everywhere I can. And if you don't currently have something like the above, I hope you find it, and find it soon.

All that's missing from my story is the aftermath of learning that balloons aren't that hard. The long, short, dirty and plain version of that story is I kept at it - mostly at and/or during social events. And yes, there were some embarrassing moments (indeed - I plan to solicit stories about the good ol' days). But when your only goal is to make the person in front of you happy, a little failure doesn't phase you. At least that's my experience.

As promised, I'll keep it brief. I take my balloons everywhere I can - because (in most cases) it is an entirely unexpected, yet surprisingly welcome, contribution to just about any situation. And thanks to the many patient and creative audiences I've had over the years, I've reached a level of proficiency that makes me happy for the time spent.

All the best,

-R