You Can Be More Than One Thing

Imagine being told you can only eat one type of food for the rest of your life… How stressful would that be?!! It’s only the rest of your life. You’d spend all the time you have stressing about making this decision, settling without ever tasting the good stuff.

Life isn’t like this, despite what you might think. 

Growing up we’ve always been asked specific questions such as: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

We’ve been repeatedly told, “Do what you love. Turn your passion into a career. You’ll never work a day in your life if you love what you do”.

But what if you’ve never stuck with that burning curious desire for a new hobby for long enough? What if so many different things have excited you? What if you want to lead many different lives, and maybe you love so many different things. How do you define a life like that, in a world so set on defining everyone and everything?

Personally, I’ve ended up in a neverending circle of attempting to define myself. For so long I’ve been trying to find my ‘niche’. In that, I’ve found multiple things that I really enjoy, things I would be happy doing with my life. There are a few different paths I could imagine, that I would be pleased to go down. But how do you begin to go down just only one, when you want two or maybe three different routes?

Everyone talks about personal branding, to define who you are, why people should be invested in your brand. And that’s freaking hard to condense into an Instagram bio. We are all so very detailed, and intricate, often a location, our vocations & occupations don’t say enough about who we are. Maybe you don’t see yourself as just those things, maybe you want to explore more or say more, but It won’t fit with your ‘niche’ and who people see you as. 

As a kid, I literally tried everything. Seriously everything, every week I was going to ‘be’ someone different. I was a non-fiction writer & researcher, then I studied flowers for a week to be a florist, a fashion designer, an actor, a psychologist, journalist - there’s a long list. 

I was always curious, always down to learn a new skill. And as a kid, you get told there’s only one path, to one thing you want to do with your life, make your subject choices in high school and that’s, that.

Don’t fall for it, you can be more than one thing, actually, you SHOULD be more than one thing. 

Basically, my point is, I don’t have that ONE thing. That one passion everyone tells you to go after, full force, with tunnel vision. I want to explore many things, and always live curiously. I always want to be chasing whatever gets me a little excited to try, to create.  

You can be more than one thing. John Green once said, “Study broadly and without fear. Learn a language if you can because that will make your life more interesting. Read a little bit every day. But most importantly try to surround yourself with people you like and make cool stuff with them. In the end, at least in my experience, what you do isn’t going to be nearly as interesting or important as who you do it with.”  

The next time someone asks you, what you’re doing or going to do with your life – just say,  “A lot, I’m going to do a lot.” 

Written by Amelia Michels