Growing up as a kid, I learned one thing about every person that I ever had the chance of meeting — every single one has a skill or potential that may be the same or different from what I have. When we were in grade school, I went into business with my sister. We sold pastries and in that business, we defined each one’s roles. She was the one in charge of baking the products. I was in charge of marketing.
Effectively selling to people and influencing them to buy into an idea or product were talents that I had identified early on in my life. Although, when I reached my mid-twenties, I went through a period in my life where I was lost. I didn’t know what to pursue. I got to identify and see so many talents that I felt like I was all over the place. I wanted to do a lot of things. A lot of people said that I needed to focus. I felt like this was a ‘disease’ that I needed to be cured of.
I am seeing this, too, in my daughter. She is such a great kid with so many talents. I see that she loves singing and dancing. I also see that she has a sense of fashion and she has innate talent for mixing and matching outfits (and not to mention posing!).
She loves shopping!
She went straight to the rack of Great Kids!
She searched for the perfect outfit and chose this!
I was worried, because I felt that I had to make her choose and encourage her to stick to that ONE talent. It was just until recently that I realized that this was something that we didn’t have to be ashamed of. While each may be gifted with a unique skill or two, there are also those who are “different”, not because they are highly skilled in one aspect, but because they have a skill set that is unique to them, as formed through a diverse range of interests they themselves developed with constant exposure to different things, and this is something not easily copied by others—the multipotentialites.
By definition, multipotentialites are people who live a life of diverse interests or creative pursuits. Oftentimes, people who are so-called multipotentialites hold many different jobs and careers and have tried many activities throughout their lifetime starting from their adulthood, simply because these things appeal to their curiosity and they find out that they are good at these, too.
A multipotentialite could be a person who is into painting, then later on turned into a writer, and then even later, pursued another unrelated interest. Or, this person may be a musician who turned computer programmer, and then later on, pursued a different job altogether.
When we were young, we were asked by adults what we wanted to become when we grew up. We then would only say just one profession — doctor, accountant, lawyer, etc. For the rather imaginative kids, they would blurt out an engineer-doctor, or a runner-writer-chef. I noticed that oftentimes, when kids would say a bunch of stuff like these, the adults would tell them to just choose one. But, really? Why should they just choose one path? Did anyone or anything limit us to just have one passion? Just one true calling? Multipotentialites are those children and adults who have no “one true calling.” These are people who have so many passions.
Raising a Multipotentialite
The multipotentialites, nor their parents, would not be aware that they may be a multipotentialite in the early stages in their lives. If you find that your child has a strong interest in one thing, then after a few months or a year, wants to switch to another hobby (this cycle of may go on and on), chances are the child is a multipotentialite. I, am a multipotentialite, and I know a lot of friends who are, too. I think my daughter is a multi-potentialite, too!
Regardless of this title or discovery, what we, parents can do is not to overthink. Let’s just support them and expose them to as many fields of interest as possible, and give them the freedom to switch interests and explore early on in their lives. Over time, your child will be independent enough to make choices for himself/herself. If they reach a point when they, too, realize that they have so many talents, we, as parents, will be there to back them up, because now we know better.
P.S. Thanks, Great Kids for allowing us to shoot in your store! 🙂
Great Kids offers fresh, fun and pretty apparel for young girls aged 2-10 yrs old and capsule collections of Infant Girls, Mommy & Me & maternity apparel.
GreatKids is available in
Pois Belly & Kids BOUTIQUES:
– TriNoma: Ground Floor near Activity Center
– SM Megamall: Level 5 The Atrium
– Shangri-la Plaza: Level 4 Main Bldg
– Alabang Town Center: Level 2 Expansion Bldg
– SM Mall Of Asia: Ground Floor in front of Kids Universe
– SM City Cebu: Level 2, Main Mall
– SM City Iloilo: Upper Ground Floor
– SM Lanang Premier Davao: Level 2
– Ayala Center Cebu: Level 3
The SM Stores:
– BF Paranaque
– Cubao
– Cebu
– Davao
– Iloilo
– Makati
– Mall Of Asia
– Manila
– Marikina
– Megamall
– North EDSA
– Pampanga
http://www.zalora.com.ph/catalog/great-kids/
