Generally Speaking #015 - How Being a Polymath Cost Me a Full-Ride Scholarship
Generally Speaking #015 - How Being a Polymath Cost Me a Full-Ride Scholarship
Guest poster, Jeff Olsen
This week we have a guest poster on the newsletter, Jeff Olsen.
Jeff is a polymath and describes himself, amongst his many varied interests, as a pen and stationary addict.
He has his own Skool community - Goat Joat’s Speakeasy - a community dedicated to helping people to develop skills and confidence with public speaking.
As well as being super active on Medium where his has set himself a challenge to post daily throughout 2024, he has a daily newsletter providing 3 Impromptu topics to help spark your writing and speaking.
Jeff is also on X.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Jeff for graciously allowing me to re-print this article.
Over to Jeff.
It was my Senior year of high-school. I was invited to interview for a full ride scholarship at my first choice college.
I accepted the invitation.
Everything seemed to be going to fine.
It was fine right up until I was asked a single interview question.
“What do you want to study?”
My response.
“Everything.”
It was my honest answer. I wanted to study everything. I wanted to adsorb as much information as possible. At that point in time I wanted to be a quintuple major. Wandering the halls right before the interview felt like anything was possible, and that I could master any subject.
I could tell the interview was over the moment that word left my lips. Their eyes started to glaze over. They started to disconnect and their responses became cold and stiff. They were just going through the motions and so was I.
What seemed so full of promise a moment before was dashed in a micro-expression. That was not the answer they wanted to hear….I didn’t get the scholarship, but that is okay. Things turned out they way they needed to. I still attended the college and graduated with a double major.
I share this story because this was the first time I vividly recall leaning into my polymath tendencies. Honestly, I didn’t even know the word existed at the time. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered the words polymath or generalist existed, and that my natural inclination to learn a diverse set of skills has a whole community behind it.
Generally speaking this is my polymath origin story. I’m glad it happened because it has led me to where I am today.
A polymath who has interests in woodworking, metallurgy, blacksmithing, photography, writing, 3D-Printing, CAD Design, welding, fountain pens, engineering (mechanical, electrical, and chemical), public speaking, industrial design, industrial drawing, coding, facilitation, leadership, EOS, entrepreneurship, investing, dividend investing, web3, shop infrastructure, smoking meats, cooking, inventing, architecture, classic cars, video games, and MacGyvering solutions to everyday problems.
Thank you.
-Jeff the GOAT JOAT
Resources
The Fountain - my fountain pen newsletter
My Medium writing
Note: If you click on any of the product links and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support.
P.S:
I don’t have all the answers but I love learning. Feel free to ask me anything. What helps you will also help me!
If you want to read more of my writing, I am also on X (Twitter) and Medium.