How Leaks, Mold, and a Broken Refrigerator Can Help You Grow Your Confidence

I was talking to a friend several months ago about the vintage travel trailer I had just bought. “It sounds like that will provide you with plenty of DIY opportunities,” she replied enthusiastically.

Indeed, one of the reasons I wanted to spend six months living in a trailer in the wilderness is that I wanted to become more self-sufficient, more handy. That aside, I had no idea how right my friend would be.

In the last four months, I’ve dealt with numerous challenges, from freezing water hoses, to insulation problems, to leaks, to smaller challenges like curtain brackets falling off.

Sometimes when the learning curve was steep (e.g. when water was leaking down on me in the middle of the night or I found myself scrubbing mold off of the ensolite inside my trailer), I thought, “be careful what you wish for, Emilie.”

However, I’ve also realized that fixing things gives me an incredible confidence boost. First it was the door handle, which had been falling off in my hand. All it took was an Allen key, but fixing that small thing made me feel so proud. I did it!

Then it was the fridge, which spontaneously stopped working. After doing a bit of research online, I removed the panel in the back and blew condensed air on the burner and up the flue. A few hours later my vegetables were cold once again.

I replaced the foam cushions in the back (which had gotten moldy from the aforementioned leak) with memory foam. I used an electric knife to cut a memory foam topper to size and fit it back in the cushion covers. I also sewed new curtains and started painting over the kitchy 50’s style decor to make it more me.

I’ve noticed that handy tends to bleed into crafty at times. It’s funny how one is typically associated with men and the other with women. But, like gender itself, the handy/crafty distinction feels more like a spectrum than something binary.

Anyway, for the first time in my life, I’m taking actual pride in fixing up the space around me. Maybe it’s because this is the first bit of property I’ve owned, or maybe it’s just where I’m at in my life. But notwithstanding the “be careful what you wish for” warning I periodically give myself, I am starting to see real results, not just in my evolving skill set, but in my confidence levels.

Perhaps this is the true benefit of learning new things, especially hard, way-out-of-your-comfort-zone new things.

Your Turn

Have you ever gotten a major confidence boost from learning something new or pursuing a difficult area?