Does anyone else ever freeze up when asked the question “what do you like to do?” or maybe “what are your talents?”  Whether it’s asked at the thanksgiving dinner table by your great aunt Sheila or in an interview setting for a job, this strikingly simple question can be surprisingly hard to answer.  I used to dread this question, but over the years I have learned to look back at past experiences and realize that my roles in all of my extracurriculars shared similar responsibilities.  It turns out my past self gave my present self some clues on what I’m actually good at.

When people used to ask me to share my talents or favorite hobbies, my answer went something like this: “um, I like to exercise a lot, and I love the outdoors.”  This is not necessarily a bad answer, as both of those thing are true, but I failed to find the professional talents hidden in my extracurricular actions.

For example, in high school I was part of the cross country team, Model United Nations, yearbook, and co-directed a local charity with my two friends.  Although each extracurricular was different, my participation in each one held similar responsibilities. For cross country, I always wanted to make the school announcements.  That consisted of standing infant of hundreds of kids and talking about upcoming meets.  For Model United Nations, similarly, I enjoyed making the school announcements on club meetings and also enjoyed designing posters to put up around the school.  For yearbook, my responsibilities were all about page design.  Finally, for Helpeduc8 (our charity) I was director of the website; I built it from scratch and designed our colors and themes for advertisements.  When I look back at all of this, I can clearly trace a pattern: I enjoy public speaking and marketing/designing advertisements.

It is strange to think about your hobbies in terms of talent.  I did not consider public speaking or creating advertisements a professional quality or responsibility, because I just enjoyed doing them.  It never occurred to me that one could enjoy their assigned tasks in their professional life.  Here I was, spending my childhood creating things and talking to people, not taking into account how indicative these activities were to my potential career path.  

Now, when someone asks me what I like to do, or what my hobbies are, I talk about how I enjoy creating and designing things, sharing information, and talking to people.  All true hobbies of mine, and all talents that can useful in a professional setting.  Coming to this simple yet difficult conclusion not only narrowed my summer internship search but also made me feel excited to start a career, when previously I had been scared that I would not like whatever I end up doing.  Now I am reaching out to marketing, social media outreach, and communication-based internships.

Getting involved in your community or taking the opportunity to join clubs and interest groups are not only good for your resume, but can also help you develop skills and learn what you do and do not like to do.  I personally found out about the Scripps Environmental Awareness Department by searching for environmental clubs on the Scripps website.  There are many different clubs and organizations for students to join that allow us to find new hobbies or engage in old ones.  Engaging in our community helps us build networks, develop skills, and learn more about ourselves and our peers.