Jack of all trades...

Confession: I’ve never been great at anything.

Yes, I’ve been good at a bunch of things, but not great at any one thing. This is not a humble brag. It’s just the plain truth. I am a jack of all (a few) trades, and that’s as good as I get.

I trained to be an artist for years. I went to art school and then majored in art at a 4-year college, finally getting my B.A. and M.A. in Visual Art. I got pretty good. You can judge for yourself: the original artwork appearing on this site is mine. I worked as a commercial artist for several years after getting my M.A. But here’s the thing: I’m not great. I’m better than average, but certainly not a master.

When I was younger, seeing mastery bothered me and I felt jealous. How did the masters become masters? How did they make it look so easy? Logically, I knew there was a huge time and emotional commitment to get to the master level of anything. Even knowing that, it still it stung to see that gap.

The truth is that in my secret heart, I knew why I couldn’t reach mastery: I would need to completely dedicate myself to getting to the next level to the exclusion of all else, and to be honest, I really just didn’t want to; it was as simple as that. Many other things interested me and specializing in one thing just wasn’t for me. I would reach my level and be happy where I was.

Getting older has helped me navigate this. I have a better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. Being a jack of all trades has its advantages. It means I get to be pretty good at a lot of the things I try! It takes a solid commitment to a thing to understand how good-but-not-great you are at it. This also means that I can appreciate true masters without jealously, because I know I’m not wired that way, never was and never would be.