Deepam Kapadia Week 3: To "Touch and Go"
Throughout my childhood, I was provided the freedom to jump between my many interests, each fizzling before the next one took its place. I drifted from basketball to martial arts to soccer to swimming, piano to violin to clarinet, and art to video editing to photography. My parents had a specific phrase for this tendency of mine: “touch and go.”
It could be argued that none of these activities amounted to the self I am today (since I dropped almost every single one), but I would argue otherwise. Swimming taught me endurance through practices at 7:00 PM on weekdays, both mental and physical strength to push through tiredness. Both soccer and basketball taught me how to work as a cog in the machine, past academic group projects and “teamwork.” Piano served as an accessible entry point for my musical education, allowing me to eventually pursue the violin and (currently) the clarinet, which I don’t plan to quit any time soon. Although I may not hold a shred of skill in any of these activities, each of them left a residue on my identity, as well as a step in the path towards my actual interests.
Such scattered curiosity is frequently reduced to the phrase “jack of all trades, master of none,” claiming that breadth and mastery are unattainable. In contrast, the latter portion of this proverb is conveniently omitted: “but oftentimes better than a master of one.” Participating in many activities does not have to be solely for the pursuit of perfection, as the identity-shaping effects may be much more valuable than “completing” the activity.
Coincidentally, the timing when I shifted from my “touch and go” phase overlaps with when my family moved from Kansas to California. At this time, sixth grade, I had reached the age when students narrowed down what they stick with. Thus, this change would have probably occurred anyway, but the loss of familiarity and accessibility that my hometown, Kansas, provided me acted as a catalyst.
Even now I see the same patterns of old reflected in my current actions. This is especially evident in my consumption of media, sporadically leaping between drastically different music genres and artists. I find myself doing the same with television, dropping a TV serial only days before deciding to pick it up again.
One activity transcended this pattern: my interest over the years in the Rubik’s cube (which is what I wrote about in my first blog). Over the years, my connection with it has evolved with me, compared to how the others faded over time.
Ultimately, all the activities that my parents simply wrote off as “a touch and go” were not wasted time or effort. They have molded me into the person I am today, and I cannot express how grateful I am for the opportunities that were given to me when I was young.
I really enjoyed how you demonstrate that all of your childhood activities still contribute to who you are, even though you eventually stopped doing most of them. Your examples from sports, music, and creative activities made it clear that each interest gave you a specific different skill or experience that stayed with you. I especially liked the idea that an activity doesn’t have to become a lifelong passion in order to be meaningful. I heavily relate to this, as I have also tried almost every activity that parents typically put their children in, and I have definitely kept parts of what I have learned with me to this day. Your discussion of having many interests also made me think about how experimenting with different things can help people figure out what they actually enjoy doing rather than immediately expecting themselves to commit to one thing, which I think is what a lot of people tend to do.
ReplyDeleteWoah, Deepam! You’ve dabbled in so many different activities as a kid (not that you aren’t still technically a kid, but you get what I mean). I’ve always been the type of kid to get invested in ONE hobby for years on end and ignore everything else, so that is pretty impressive to me. Like, seriously, how did you juggle all of that without getting overwhelmed? That curiosity of yours is unmatched!
ReplyDeleteI also totally agree with your assertion that these “touch and go” hobbies contributed significantly towards your personal growth—I feel like every experience is valuable and leaves some sort of impact on the type of person you grow into, no matter how small it seems at the moment. For instance, beyond soccer and basketball teaching you how to work in a team, it simultaneously improves your hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness. There are so many tiny skills that you can pick up on without noticing, even if your time spent in these hobbies was “short-lived.” Your parents might have not noticed because of how small these changes were, but it was these developments that likely enabled you to safely navigate crowded airports or school halls.
On a separate note, I never knew that the “jack of all trades” proverb had more to it. I had always assumed that the saying was (at least slightly) insulting people who could not find something to specialize in, but the true ending of it flipped my perspective entirely; it’s more than likely that the person accredited with the proverb deeply valued the flexibility and utility that came with being knowledgeable in various fields.
Oh, and I was not aware that you lived in Kansas at some point (not from what I can recall from previous blogs)! That honestly made my eyebrows shoot up in surprise. I wonder what it was like there. Do you have any fond memories you can recall?
It’s so cool that you have so many interests! Sometimes, however, I stick to things once I start them. For example, I’ve been playing the piano since I was 8, and I’ve learnt a lot of things along the way. But I also tend to oscillate between activities, such as in sports, where I played soccer, basketball, and tennis at one point. I completely agree with your point about how each of your experiences contribute to your identity, though. I feel like the time I spent with each sport I played taught me something new, whether that was hand-eye coordination or simply teamwork. I think your Rubik’s cube would be my piano; I never stopped playing it once. I believe sticking with an activity has its own benefits too; mastery of a skill can allow you to truly flourish. I love the way you took all of your past experiences and turned them into your story, with each one being like a chapter.
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