Drabble: A dilemma of breadth and depth

I'll start off with a confession. I've always been a breadth person. I love learning new things. As a kid, I was interested in a multitude of things. I loved singing, reading, writing and a dozen other things. It wasn't a spurt of interest that quickly fades away after the initial allure, whatever I liked I genuinely had a passion for. I found serenity and a sense of higher fulfillment in them. Up to a certain age, let's say around high school, I was able to actually devote time to all of these and even pick up a few other hobbies on the way. But then, somewhere after that, I realized that breadth and depth are mutually exclusive. If you want to be an expert at something, then you have a better shot at that if you devote the majority of your time to it. Another sad realization was this: People, in general, frown on breadth. 'Jack of all, Master of None' says it all. If you want to be taken seriously at what you do, single-mindedness is what is demanded of you.

I picked up this disdain albeit reluctantly--it was not that I despised breadth, but that I desired depth in breadth. I did not want to be Jack of all, I wanted to be Master of all. This was possibly an impossible ambition, but it was always what I dreamed of. I wanted more hours in the day, so that I could actually do everything I loved and reach near perfection in all of them. 

As life went on, I found myself drawn into a vicious cycle of hectic life centered around academics, and very few of my interests survived. But yes, some of them did, reading, music and writing are the predominant ones. I berate myself for all the ones that got left behind, telling myself that I probably wasn't passionate enough about them and that's why they didn't make the cut. Today, at almost a quarter century of age, I still wonder if I can start afresh. If I can somehow transcend this barrier imposed by time, energy and lethargy and find a synergy of depth and breadth. That, for me, would be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow :)