Creative Date Week 8 - Multipotentialite

I was browsing through the TED talk and found one titled " Why some of us don't have one true calling". I clicked on it immediately with a voice shouting inside of me " Yeah, that's me! Please tell me how to deal with it!" Surprisingly, the speaker didn't offer me a "cure all" solution but introduced a new word "multipotentialite" to acknowledged the kind of people who have a range of interests and jobs over the life time.

Today's society is designed in a way that people are trained into specialized field so they can work more efficiently together to achieve certain results. When we were in high school, we have to make choice for our direction: art or science, later on in the university, we have to choose a specialization of major in one filed. Eventually, we need to choose our career in one particular domain. I always heard people say this to me: "You should find your own direction and work towards to become an expert in that field." This is how success is defined in today's world. I also had a roommate before who kept telling me that how important is the first job, sounds like the first job will layout the future happiness and wealth for the rest of her life. However, I quit my first job just two months ago, and decided to pursue a completely different path. It actually takes a lot of courage to make this decision but I am glad I made it.

I never think I am the kind of person who can devote the whole life to just one single thing. When I was a small girl, I always curious about everything that I don't know about yet. Until now, I still love to explore things, have more challenges and gain new experience. It's not about my interest doesn't last for long, I actually keep painting since two years old, playing the violin since six years old and never give up writing stuffs regularly. It's just that I never want to devote all my time in one and only field that I am interested in. I am indeed a multipotentialite who still struggle in this highly specialized society. But today's world is actually evolving faster than we thought and it requires people to be more adaptive. People start to work across domains to achieve better results and need to be agile in learning and generating ideas. The program I currently in is also a good example of multidisciplinary study where art meets science and no longer "art or science". Hopefully one day people who are multipotentialites would found more possible fits in this society and contribute their cross domain knowledge to create a less-bias world.