Leeann, The Multipotentialite: Finding My Path

I’ve spent a lot of time wondering which career path to take. The problem is-or what I used to think was the problem-is that I have always had too many interests. At Hugh M. Cummings High School, I was involved in at least 3 extracurricular clubs at any given time: book club, Key Club, art club, gardening club, etc. I was always busy. They had a program where we could take a bus to the Career and Technical Education Center (CTEC) for classes. It showed us different career paths and helped us build valuable skills, including certifications.

I took a 3D modeling class because I thought maybe I could be one of those people who create online 3D models for crime scene reconstruction. The 3D modeling class was the one I struggled with most. I had no experience in these computer programs. This is a girl who didn’t have internet at home until she immigrated to America in 2010. The only video games I played were Just Dance and The Sims. I remember going to the internet cafe to play MyScene dress-up games and going to the computer lab using a floppy disk was the most exciting time of the school day! The class was mostly boys, all passionate gamers, and half the time I had no idea what they were talking about. On the first day during the icebreaker introduction, everyone said they wanted to be a video game developer, and I said I wanted to be a forensic scientist. Kudos to the women in male-dominated computer fields because it was difficult both socially and academically.

I also took a medical terminology class that I really loved because I like learning about the origins of words and phonics, but also because I had forensics and science on my mind. In the medical class, we had to watch a video of an autopsy and also a rhinoplasty. It was intriguing, yet disturbing. Seeing the skin pulled off a skull made me think this might not be for me. I could stomach it better than the classmate who ran out to throw up, but I think I enjoy working with live people a lot more.

I remember volunteering with the Burlington Times newspaper and sitting with a journalist to see what their daily life is like. It was not as exciting as I thought it would be. I didn't get to go into the field with the broadcasters. I stayed inside, watched the journalists edit, and talked with them about their jobs. The journalist was candid and told me that paper journalism is dying. “Social media is the new journalism.”  The next semester, I took a media class at CTEC. We filmed short movies and learned how to edit photos and videos. Being in front of a camera was never my thing. I was out of my comfort zone, but it was fun to learn. I improved my public speaking, creative thinking, and confidence overall. I’m grateful for all of these experiences because I took away lessons from each one. I recommend that high school students take advantage of the electives, volunteer work, and extracurriculars to fully explore their interests because you never know where you will find your spark.

Community college at Forsyth Technical Community College gave me opportunities to explore my interests further through general studies classes and interesting electives. I took a journalism elective class and also wrote for the school paper “Technically Speaking.” Writing for the paper was enjoyable because I got to go to school events, take pictures, and, most importantly, talk to people there. I liked asking questions and being the outgoing person that I am. Funny enough, a journalist from the Winston-Salem Journal was at one of the events, and I told him I was considering going into journalism. He straight up told me, “Don’t do it.” He was probably joking, but after hearing from two journalists about the difficulty of their careers, especially with the rise of digital media in the 2010s, I took their advice to heart and decided to change my focus.

I chose to major in Political Science when I transferred to Eastern Connecticut State University. Political science is a multidisciplinary field. I liked learning about different governments, cultures, social problems around the world, research, and writing. I minored in Pre-law, and my favorite class in that concentration was Business Law. If I were to go to law school, I would be interested in pursuing that subject. I ended up working within the criminal justice field for Probation as a Judicial Services Coordinator, where I work with criminal offenders through the process of getting on probation in a non-sworn, administrative position. I handle intake from the courtroom to our office, manage cases for community service workers, and collaborate with nonprofit agencies. I like my job because: 1. I have variety. Every day is different. 2. I meet people from all types of backgrounds, and 3. I build relationships within the community by getting to know our nonprofit partners.

As a woman diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), I tend to have an assortment of ideas in my head and projects in the works. Still, I struggle to execute them because I want to do everything at once. I always go 100%. I interpreted that difficulty as not living up to my potential. However, I am beginning to see it differently and understand that my brain works differently. Being different isn’t a bad thing. I am learning how to build a career that works with the way I think, rather than constantly trying to force myself into a traditional mold.

Multipotentialite. The first time I heard of this word was in this book: “How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don’t Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up” by Emilie Wapnick. It is a career and self-help guide. This book verbalized my feelings about finding a career path as an ADHD person with diverse interests. As soon as I read the description, I knew this book was meant for me. A multipotentialite, according to Emilie Wapnick, is “someone with many interests and creative pursuits.” Multipotentialites have several strengths that we ourselves fail to recognize. Recognizing my strengths is one step toward accepting my neurodivergent differences.

Go to Part 2 to read more about my strengths as a multipotentialite.