What I Found About Myself in 2020
By: Shreya Badonia
Tags: Little Things, Coffee, Life, Self-awareness, Personal Essay

My taste in music

Have you ever thought about things you do every day yet never really think about it?

I do it all the time.

We eat every day, but we never really think about what we put inside our bodies. We scroll endlessly and don’t even know how the time slips away.

We listen to music that’s been promoted on feed, or suggested by a friend or radio but never really spend time thinking about what we actually like.

I shared the same relationship with music. I was in high school when I gave no attention to music. I had my favorites but I don’t know if I liked those artists to look cool or to be accepted by my pals.

Until that point, I hadn’t found any artist that made me think and fall in love with music. But after extensive research and mindfulness that this year got into my life I finally found artists that I loved listening to. The best thing about them is they’re not really popular and yet their music quenched my thirst for art and rhythm.

Photo by Simon Noh on Unsplash

I discovered Noah Reid’s music because of Schitt’s Creek. His folk music is deep, thoughtful, and full of anecdotes. The lyrics are beautifully pieced together into rhymes that is hard to leave your ears even after you’ve stopped listening. His songs Underwater and Apollo, Honesty are some of my favorites.

Welsh artist Novo Amor’s Indie rock and folk music has been the background score of this year for me. If you're into folk music, you must have heard Anchor by him, it’s a masterpiece.

The best part about his music is I can play it while writing — beautiful and soothing.

Apart from folk, I found out my love for Jazz Rock, RnB soul, and some 80’s disco. Sammy Rae Music was a great discovery, her music brought the energy and hopefulness that was missing when things slowed down. She sounds just like my spirit anymore, especially her song Kick It To Me.

I also rediscovered some old artists I found new meaning in their music. Some of them are Harry Chaplin, Bob Dylan and the band Earth Wind and Fire, and Queen.

Found a term describing me

I am a designer by profession. However, there are a bunch of things that I do.

I am a curious human being trying to find some arduous questions about life and sharing them with the world through my writing, podcast, and videos. I also study and talk about my philosophy of self-love, personal development, content creation, marketing, and ideas that I can’t stop thinking about.

In the beginning, I was ashamed of telling people that I do a bunch of things I am learning about various domains every single day. But I found my aha moment when I learned about Ashton Kleon, author of Steal Like An Artist, who talks about accepting your interests and not worrying about your title.

So I started calling myself a polymath.

A polymath (Greek: πολυμαθής, polymathēs, “having learned much”;is an individual whose knowledge spans a significant number of subjects,

I thought I was doing something wrong otherwise how can someone be remotely interested in a variety of things at once. But when I started researching about polymaths and renaissance man, I learned about some of the greatest minds who were all interested in and specialized in more than one or more fields. Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Helen Keller are a few of the greatest polymaths among many.

This finding pushed me to continue my interest in learning all the subjects I was interested in, unlike the conventional way to stick to one niche and master it. I am trying my best to puzzle all my interests together, and do not consider myself a fool in this pursuit.

Photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash

Conclusion

Nothing can replace the ecstasy that great rewards and winds bring into our lives, but we mustn’t forget that life is bigger than that. Your small wins count as well. I am grateful to have learned these things about myself.

The reason I write this article is to remind you to spend some time and think about what trivial yet special discovery you made this year — only for yourself!