I have been struggling to write my “about me” statement over the last several weeks and months.
It’s been a hilariously frustrating process. I know most people don’t like writing about themselves, I don’t generally either and I’m additionally flummoxed by the attempt to inclusive, cohesive and still brief (unlike this sentence… you see my problem).
I discovered Emilie, puttylike, and the idea of “multipotential” awhile ago. I initially thought “huh, interesting, but not really me.” I only had one career after all… until I took the leave of absence… and that other one… oh. As I heard and tuned in more I realized “right, that just might be me.”
One of the things that I always loved about freelance editing was that I dropped in on an industry, life, mini-world for a little while and then moved on to the next thing. I would be cutting mexican wrestling one week, corporate biz speak the next, a cooking demo the next month, promos on movies and video games after that and then work on a show about entrepreneurial college students, kids competitions and drug addition all within the same 6 months. True story.
So, um, maybe I’m a multipotentialite?
Constantly scanning the world at large for the interesting? Check.
Falling in love with an idea/sport/hobby/activity and being jazzed about it. working to a point of non-ineptitude and then dropping it for the next thing? Check
Enjoy talking to wildly different people with different experiences? Check
Problem solver extrodinaire who gets bored quickly after the solution is found? Check.
Respect for experts and aficionados because you don’t have the stick-to-itiveness to be one yourself? Check.
Love learning a little about a little? Check.
Heart-pounding fear of commitment to a job — or really anything — for a year or more? Oh hecka-Check.
Sound familiar? You too might be a scanner! But wait, there’s more…
And then… and then… and then…
Let’s look at the last month.I have: designed, customized and launched a WP site; nannyed my niece; attended a LIS graduate classes; edited video and compression tests for TV work; wrote pieces for a LIS blog, bike zine and impossible league; created 2 logos; registered 3 domains for future side projects; learned some Italian; did yoga, “fight club” and multiple 30+mile bike rides; made my own kale chips, power bars and soup; designed a bike jersey; made impossible goals and meditated; coded in HTML, Flash and Drupal; started a vegan lifestyle; rated beers on untappd.
I’m sure I’m neglecting quite a few things in there yet you get the point. Looking at that list is helpful because I see some patterns (visual creativity, writing, education, geekery) but then my scatterbrain jumps in with “what about sport?! And travel?! and food?!”
How do I pick just one to write about so that I have a consistent message? The idea ONE THING feels so restrictive and limiting I want to push out my arms to keep the walls back.
Yet so many respectable bloggers and writers talk about the importance of niche, expertise, and finding your “one thing.” Emilie, head of the putty tribe, even thinks it important to create an “umbrella” for all of my your various outlets and passions so that your business/blog isn’t a scattered mess.
I labored to bind up CBB into a neat little package for a long time. Unsurprisingly it was a tough nut to put together. Trying to pick a single topic for a blog with three items in the title sounds like a set-up for disaster.
I didn’t and don’t want to choose. Conforming to one thing or a set path in life led me to some places of great unhappiness and I don’t want to go there again.
If you feel the same way you are most definitely not alone. The “One thing” people are loud and can be stifling (no offense Curly) but there are many out there that don’t just want to be one thing when they grow up.
Whatever you are into, be into you.
Finally on a long flight I had the Be IN brainwave and was able to join everything (and really anything) under a nice big, broad credo.
Learn as much as you want about as many various, splendid, shiny, geeky, crazy things as you want. You don’t have to do it forever, just enjoy it intentionally right now.
The more I’ve played with it and used it the more I like it.
So it’s all about you huh?
The last show I saw in NYC before coming to Athens was “A Little Night Music.” Elaine Stritch was great. Bernadette Peters was fab. But twas the maid who stole the show with “The Miller’s Son.” It is a song about.. well… casual sex really but the idea is to playfully have long-range plan yet enjoying yourself in the “meanwhile” without getting all fussy about it:
“There’s a lot I’ll have missed but I’ll not have been dead when I die!
And a person should celebrate everything passing by.”
Thus we get back to the “I am” statement. I am a woman who likes to be inspired and turn that spark into passionate pursuit of knowledge and enjoyment in the present. I hope that my message and musings encourage others to create their own best selves and do the same.
I’ve embraced my multi-potential nature. I’ve accepted that I have varied tastes. The One-Thing people can become experts and I will will happily skip through life from one passion to the next.
For this particular labor of love and learning experience I can spend yet more energy and effort trying to define who I am OR I can use that time to continue to create who I am. Will I write an “about me” someday that I think is cohesive and all inclusive of my wild self? Perhaps. But that day is not today.
In this meanwhile I’ll enjoy what is passing by and hope that is a statement in and of itself.
Any others out there with wildly vacillating interests? Have no idea what I’m talking about? Add your two sense in the comments.
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