Jack of All Trades - Master of (All of My Hobbies)

DEFINING A MULTIPOTENTIALITE

Do you ever catch yourself trying to answer somebody's question of –"what do you like to do for fun when you're not working?"

If your mind begins to spiral over the number of hobbies you have picked up over the years and the justified purchases you have made to go along with each hobby to express your creative pursuits, you may be a multipotentialite.

According to Emilie Wapnick on Puttylike in her 2015 TED talk, "Why Some of Us Don’t Have One True Calling,"

A multipotentialite is someone with many interests and creative pursuits.

It stems from the word multipotentiality–a psychological and educational term used to describe people who display aptitudes across multiple disciplines.

Normally you think of those with many different hobbies who are associated with ADHD, but it's more than that. Sometimes, there are a good amount of us that love having more than one hobby and eventually learn to master each one. For many of us, it all begins with one thing we are passionate about when we are kids.

How I Became a Multipotentialite

For myself, it all began the minute I was able to speak. Music became my first passion and I learned the piano alongside my songwriting. I blame my growth of hobbies on the amount of television and movie content I consumed as I grew up. My love for Disney, Marvel, DC, Lord of the Rings spiraled into the obsession of dressing up as my favorite characters for Halloween.

Only dressing up on Halloween wasn't enough for me, that is when I stepped into the world of cosplay. In the cosplay world, it isn't only about purchasing your costume, though some do. It is about the craftsmanship of your costume. Your sewing skills, your foam carving skills, or your prop-making skills. One thing led to another and I learned how to make armor using foam or how to transform a nerf gun into looking like a real one for a character.

Now, out of cosplay, I took on sewing. I blame my Etsy page because at the same time I also took on crocheting. Through scarf and scrunchie making I asked myself what else can I master to sell online? That's when I picked up my iPad and started drawing which resulted in selling fanart and prints online.

Alright, that would seem like enough hobbies for one person, right? Wrong.

From there I joined the Jane Austen Society and learned how to craft letters by writing with a quill and sealing the envelopes with wax.

I also took up photography and videography for my travels.

Not to mention my hobby for tabletop gaming when it comes to Dungeons and Dragons. The list goes on and on.

The interesting part is to find out that I don't have a job working within any of my beloved hobbies. Maybe I fear that once my hobby becomes work it no longer becomes a creative escape. Perhaps the probability of working in one of those hobbies isn't a reality right now and with that, it is okay.

WHAT NOW?

You might get to this portion of this article and ask yourselves, "what now?" You may realize that you are just like me and have many different outlets to express yourself creatively. This is when I turn to you and say it's okay to have many different hobbies or even not be able to stick to just one. You're not alone and there is nothing wrong with that.

WHY SOME OF US DON'T HAVE ONE TRUE CALLING.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Well, if you're not sure you want to do just one thing for the rest of your life, you're not alone. In this illuminating talk, writer and artist Emilie Wapnick describes the kind of people she calls "multipotentialites" — who have a range of interests and jobs over one lifetime. Are you one?