Whoever coined the term, “Jack
of all trades, master of none” must have known me in some strange distant
way. Believe it or not, I had only heard that term for the first time about a
year ago! Is that crazy? I had heard “Jack
of all trades,” but hearing the “master
of none” part spoke to me with flashing lights and wailing sirens. That’s
me!!
For the longest time I’ve struggled with the fact that I
have no passion. There is no one thing in my life that takes center stage. I
haven’t been doing, collecting, or practicing anything for an insane amount of
years. There just isn’t anything that I absolutely have to do every week, month
or year without having withdrawals and for some reason this bothered me. I’ve
tried really hard to dive into things like cooking, baking, crocheting, various
sports (I’ve tried dozens!), and tons of other classic hobbies. Each one came
and went as another phase or craze.
My husband will gladly share plenty of very true and slightly
embarrassing stories from what he calls my “hippie days,” when I was working at
a summer camp and decided I needed to rock the surfer look, become a vegetarian
(which last about 3 months… all I ate was pasta!), and thought it was okay to
only shower bi-weekly.. what?! I swam in a chlorinated pool… that gets you
clean enough, right? ..Yea, it was that intense.
Yes, that's me on the left.
That wig may have been a one-time deal,
but those shades, bracelets, beads, and headbands
were daily accessories for the entire summer! =)
Keep Calm and Surf On, Dude!
I would say all of the phases I went through were “intense”
while they lasted. Or at least I was very interested and passionate about them
for the time being. I once baked 5 cheesecakes from scratch in one day! If you’ve
never made a real, from scratch, home-made cheesecake, just know that it takes
forever! And the cleaning up part takes even longer. I can’t be sure that there
still isn’t dried, crusty, cheesecake splatter somewhere in that apartment. But
that’s beside the point.
The point is, I spent so much time searching for that one
thing that I could be passionate about FOREVER,
that I never realized how passionate I was about the things I was doing at the
moment. I mean, that’s what really counts right? I can’t expect myself to be a
dedicated Olympic athlete, or a TV worthy cook like Rachael Ray or Paula Deen (although
it would be completely cool, and I have some serious respect for anyone who can
master something).
All I can do is be my best and love what I’m doing, even if it
only lasts a few weeks, or months.
Now that I’ve come to that realization and totally believe
in it, I’m having one of those, “Yea! Why didn’t I think of that before!”
moments. I’m not my 100% best every day, and yes I still do things that I don’t
totally love, but for the most part I find myself pouring my heart into even
the little things I do. So I may not yet be a master of any trade and I may
never become one, but I certainly know and have done a little bit of this and a
little bit of that. I have laughed and
loved all along the way and I’ll be perfectly fine if I never find a permanent
niche.
No comments:
Post a Comment