Me, me, me
This is me:
Usually I'm smiling
I’m an adopted little brown girl from Amish Country, PA. Seriously. This is about 1 mile down the road from my parents’ house.
Growing up among the cows and farms, it’s safe to say I never really felt like I fit in. So I took my inability to belong to a single group and capitalized on it. I opted to be the social butterfly, flitting in and out of social circles. Doing so helped me be conversant in a range of topics so that I didn’t look like an idiot in different groups. This early learning lesson continued as the years went on. As a young adult, my brother used to tease me that I was a professional student. I was always in school. Seriously. Always. However, over the last few years I realized that school is great and all, but I was pretty much over traditional collegiate education. I wanted to learn real things. Things that I can use in daily life. I wanted to acquire more skills, not just textbook knowledge. I wanted to learn how to do things and fix things.
Listen, I change my mind a lot. Not on large-scale things, usually, but smaller scale things. I’m guilty of being distracted by “ooooooh! pretty shiny!” and I know this. I’ve accepted that I’m ADHD and I’m trying to use that to my benefit. Experts are overrated (except for surgery). So as an adult who’s in touch with herself, rather than attempting to master a skill which evidently requires focus and commitment, I opt to pick up snippets of skills and join them into one superhero type format.
Cooking? Check and check. Driving a racecar? Motorcycle? Check and check. And lots of other things…
To be clear, I’m not on some sort of Bucket List mission. There are a lot of things I’d like to DO before I die. But I’m looking to acquire more skills and knowledge that are useful in life. Spatial reasoning skills, construction skills, communication skills, repair skills, maybe even some engineering skills. And absolutely athletic skills are included. But my mission here is more about learning and doing and less specifically about traveling or having adventures. Although I hope to do both of those while on this path, but they’re not the focal point. Additionally, this is Jill of Some Trades, not Jill of All Trades, so I’m not looking to tackle absolutely everything. That just sounds too ambitious even for me.
I know I’m not the only one with ADHD or who likes to learn new things. So, it’s your turn. What have you been meaning to learn for ages now? A class that always sounded cool? Share what new things you’ve learned or skills you’ve acquired? Want to tell me how badass archery is? Do it! Do you need me to hold you accountable? We should totally be friends!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Amanda! I’m totally a Jill of All Trades too. Sometimes it seems like a Jill of Too Many Trades when I’m spread thin, but it’s a fun way to be.
In the next few weeks I’m learning lots of things… running a half marathon this weekend, training for a triathlon in summer (uhh, how far is a 1000M swim, again?). Next weekend, I’m learning how to forage – inspired by Katniss in Hunger Games! – and in a few weekends, learning Reiki. Totally with you on learning new things, I’m addicted to it!
Of the things I’ve done.. I was a Zumba instructor on the side for a year, that was awesome! Learned photography this past year with a photo a day thing, and I’ve really enjoyed how much more I can appreciate and notice cool things around me – birds, animals, foliage, great expressions – with an eye trained to look for good photos. I’m slowly picking up gardening (err, not completely killing plants), that’s one of the harder skills for me, but a fun one.
Hold me accountable to sticking with one – or maybe a small handful of – web project(s). I get excited about SO many ideas and start a zillion projects, hoard domain names, but need to finish a few before I start on something new – haha. Wanna be accountability buddies?
See you at WDS!
Yes! Accountability buddies! God, I get so off track and distracted sometimes. It’s awful. Definitely too many trades sometimes. We sound like twins! And twins hold each other accountable! I’d like to pick up some web projects but I’m still on the low end of web design /programming knowledge. Baby steps. So freaking stoked for WDS. Did you go last year?