I’m amazed when I hear people say they always knew what they wanted to be when they grow up. Some say it’s a calling, while others discover a profession and decide it’s for them. The careers they choose are firefighters, police officers, nurses, doctors, and teachers. I’m not like that, what’s wrong with me, and then I heard the word multipotentialite. Multipotentialwho?
When I Grow Up
Ask a child what they want to be and they will give you an answer. Growing up I wasn’t aware or had a calling for anything in particular. I idolized my father so I went into the field of science; majoring in chemistry.
Ask me today what I want to be when I grow up and I will say, I don’t know. Who goes through life and doesn’t know what they want to do.
TED Talks
TED Talks are amazing videos of top experts sharing their knowledge in 15 minutes. The topics range from business, health, technology, language, and more. One of the talks described me, revealing why I can’t define my calling.
By chance, I clicked on a TED Talk given by Emilie Wapnick, an award-winning author and artist. That’s where I heard the word, multipotentialite.
Don’t Know What to Be When I Grow Up
Multipotentialite, “a person with many interests and pursuits.”
I understand how Emilie arrived at the term by reading her bio: a musician/songwriter, web designer, filmmaker, writer, and entrepreneur who, as she states, moves “from interest to interest, building on my skills in different areas, and synthesizing the knowledge I acquire along the way.” Clearly, she knows what she’s talking about.
Emilie breaks down the meaning of multipotentialite; a person who takes two or more ideas and creates from it; learns quickly and applies it to the next project and; is adaptable to any situation. She explains that these people can’t answer the question, what do I want to be when I grow up because they have too many interests. That’s me, I work on something and proceed to lose interest.
What I Want to be When I Grow Up
Then writing materialized and I found a fit. Writing involves components I’m interested in: reading, learning, researching, put it down on paper. When I write I feel like this is what I should be doing, not feel guilty I should be doing something else. The components of writing fulfill my need to create, learn, apply it, and adapt to change.
I no longer wonder what’s wrong with me since I can’t describe or realize my path since it’s always changing. Not knowing where or what I will be doing in six months is what makes fits me. Want to know what I want to be when I grow up? What I am right now, a multipotentialite.
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