Remembering what I enjoyed doing as a kid

In high school, I was on the debate team.

I joined freshman year because I needed an extracurricular in my schedule.

I had no idea how much I would like it.

I won state trophies all four years and I went to nationals three years.

One summer, I carried a laptop around with me everywhere I went because I was working on a “brief.”

This was back in 2010, I think. So imagine this big hulking thing of a laptop. I’d sit outside in a lawn chair and squint at the screen that was barely visible in the sun.

If you’re not familiar with debate, a big part is doing research.

Briefs are just collections of research.

I worked all summer on this brief, getting ready for the next debate season.

It ended up being like 50 pages and thousands of words, which was a big feat for me as a high-schooler.

And I crushed it that season.

Everybody else got the same research from the same summer camps that everyone else went to.

Nobody knew how to respond to my research because they’d never run across it before.

Today, I’m writing a blog post for a website.

And I’m kinda having fun with it.

And I’m good at it.

It feels natural, easy.

Which is what made me think of how I liked to write debate research.

It’s a good way to think about what you want to be doing with your adult life.

We went to school and got jobs and blah blah blah … you’ve heard it before.

But I do seriously think that we end up doing things we don’t really want to do.

And it’s hard to even parse out what you want to be doing.

Before you even get close to what brings you joy, you’re already optimizing for what will make money, what your family needs.

The cheat code is to remember what you liked doing as a kid.

When you had all the time in the world.

When your parents paid your bills.

When you woke up and just did whatever you wanted to do because, well, what else was there to do?

Whatever it is, whatever you used to enjoy doing that you don’t do anymore, maybe you’ll have fun if you start doing it again.