High school and party time
Tonight I went to a party hosted by my friend Sara Dietschy. I was very late to the party because I was coming from a work event in Brooklyn and the party was on the upper east side. It was a great party. I got to catch up with a bunch of old friends and meet some new ones as well.
One person who I was surprised but happy to see was my friend Izzy. I was surprised because Izzy is in high school and most of the people at the party were in their mid-20s. At the same time I wasn’t that surprised because Izzy is a very sophisticated high school student. She’s leveraged technology and the internet to carve out pretty cool niche for herself, in spite of her age. Izzy is a good example of someone who’s genuinely excited about making things, so she does just that as much as she can.
I met Izzy online somewhere along the line. I had tweeted about needing help for a project I was working on. I think I was looking for someone in nyc to beta test a new Beme feature. Izzy came by the office and had some really thoughtful insights about what we were working on. Since then she’s given feedback on a few other things we’ve worked on. Her thoughtfulness in assisting with the project we were working on led me to take a look at more of what she was up to. Since I found her blog and everything she’s shared online I’ve become a big fan. She’s a great example of someone who’s not only at the right place at the right time but also has the work to back up her claims of creativity.
Tonight we talked about the differences between September in high school and September when you’re 25. It’s amazing how much you learn when you’re in high school and how little of that knowledge sticks with you after a few years. I knew so much about history and math as a high school student. I was actually pretty good at calculus but today I have no idea what calculus even is! I used to know so much about both World Wars but now my knowledge is vague at best.
I joked with Izzy that your intelligence peaks at the end of your junior year of high school. The fact is that you learn so much when you’re in high school but you could never remember it all. How could you? But nobody tells you that’s okay when you’re in high school. Nobody tells you it’s alright to focus on the things you’re really passionate about and put a little less effort into the things you don’t love. One day you have to figure out what you want to do with your life and it’s a lot easier to do that when you’re really good at one thing than when you’re only okay at everything.
If I had as clear a sense of what I wanted to do at 17 as Izzy does I’d have accomplished a lot more by now. But that’s okay too. Life’s not a race, it’s a tour. Explore everything you can and spend extra time on the things that make you happy. I bet in a few years we’ll all be looking up to some cool project Izzy worked on as the creative director of some dope company. Just one more reminder to keep on making things that you’re excited about. Also, shoutout to Sara for getting so many cool people together in one place tonight.
