I grew up believing that being a Jack of All Trades was a bad thing; that not mastering a single pursuit was a failing. Growing up, I dabbled in countless hobbies, explored numerous academic pursuits (my high school schedule was packed so full that I attended one class before school started, and only attended half of each French class), and as an adult have worked in a variety of professions–the more that I have experienced, the more that I have come to appreciate the rich tapestry of my knowledge. The bounty of being a Jack takes time to harvest, but I firmly believe that it is of equal value to that of our specialists. As I learned and pursued different interests, I did what Jacks do best–I noticed patterns and through them came to a deeper understanding of myself.
On their surface, my fascination with psychology, my love of learning foreign languages and studying linguistics, my wanders in worlds of fiction, my forays into the plastic arts and my journeys with photography seem remarkably disparate, but they are all manifestations of the same core passion: human connection and experience. I love people; I love how they find ways to freeze powerful moments and repackage them for sharing; I love how different and similar their lives are all at once; I love how bonded to one another they are and how they lend helping hands in hard times; I love trying to understand their behavior, peeling back layers of beliefs and thoughts and emotions and motivations and parsing through how they all intersect to make who you see in front of you.
An individual ant isn’t a particularly remarkable thing, but an ant colony is a genius of engineering and city planning. I’m inclined to believe that humans are the same. Our individual experiences and accomplishments and knowledge become so much more when they come together, and I have to believe that the Jacks of the world have their role to play in this.
