You know your friend who loves sports, or video games, or political blogging? Your cousin whose "thing" is cooking, and everyone always knows what to get him for his birthday? I'm not that person. Growing up, I quit piano lessons twice, stayed in band just for the football game road trips, and was, for a short while, a roadie for some friends' Christian punk rock band - but never actually listened to their whole CD. I played tennis for six years and was pretty decent at it, but my senior year I spent a few months thinking maybe I wanted to be a landscape architect so I ditched an important tennis tournament to go to the regional horticulture competition. It didn't go well, and I didn't become a landscape architect. Within minutes of trying anything and marginally succeeding, I have fantasies of uncovering a dormant hidden talent and becoming the next great soccer star, interior designer, or chef. As quickly as the mood strikes, though, my cleats, paintbrush, and pastry knife are gathering dust. This isn't to say I don't think I'm good at anything - more that I rarely stick with things long enough to achieve expert levels.
In college, I was a classic liberal arts major who studied what I enjoyed learning about with no real goal of what I would do with it afterwards. I took a semester of German, one of astronomy, and a bunch of other sociology and other really fun classes where we sat around and talked about thoughts. I got one job, and that eventually led to another, until I settled into my current position as a program manager at a Washington, D.C. area trade association. Being a program manager at a small organization is the job description equivalent of the junk drawer in your kitchen: it includes basically anything you want to put there, and everyone needs one.
So here I am, a few decades in, a jack-of-all-trades and master of none.
I saw this as a defect until very recently. Out of the blue one day, I realized that my passion, my talent, my "thing" wasn't escaping me - my "thing" is trying just about everything once. Learning just enough about a multitude of subjects to strike up a conversation with anyone. Proudly knowing just a little bit about everything. Being really supportive of and excited for the people who do really love political analysis, or sports, and kung-fu. So I'm going to document that here, and maybe you'll be inspired along the way to pick up a new hobby (or two), or explore a new career path, or just do something out of your comfort zone today.
I'm up for anything - feel free to email me at TheApprentess(at)gmail.com with suggestions. Free or cheap seminars, classes, or job shadowing opportunities are even better!
