One evening I was walking to my campus library when I ran into one of my fraternity brothers. He was skating around snapping pictures of our school. He abruptly asked me if I was an avid skateboarder. I replied with “I have never skateboarded a day in my life.” With an enormous grin on his face, he set his skateboard down and demanded that I take 15 minutes of my time to learn how to skateboard. Mind you it was almost midnight, I had a lot of homework to do, and I did not feel like getting sweaty just to learn how to skateboard. He insisted that he teach me how to skateboard and that I would not regret it. So, I agreed.
I will preface the rest of this article by saying that skateboarding is far harder than how the professionals and other talented people make it seem to be. I always have considered myself to be a little uncoordinated when it comes to having to do anything that requires me to balance myself. Skateboarding for the first time was incredibly tricky. Though as difficult it was to find my balance, get the correct stance and foot positioning, and then be able to maneuver the board to stop and turn without falling on my face, I had fun. My brother was encouraging, positive, and gave me excellent feedback when it came to getting the right skills down. I had not thought about picking up this skill once in my life until that very random encounter with him. I am glad I was patient enough to do it. I now have a genuine interest to want to practice more. Getting around on wheels would save me a lot of time and would allow me to appreciate the scenery that my campus and the city of Detroit has to offer.
Why was this moment so significant? To be a well-rounded individual with a diverse set of skills, hobbies, and interests makes you stand out from others who invest their time one particular thing. Learning something new, even it is just necessary information or basic skills, allows us to appreciate the time and energy spent by experts who have mastered these skills. I can say now that I have a firm appreciation and respect for those who skateboard all of the time and make it seem so effortless. I never gave it much of a thought of myself skateboarding. It was always that thing that I saw and noticed, but never gave too much thought about until I tried it. I didn’t know I could pick up something that quickly in just 15 minutes. We can surprise ourselves with how fast we can pick up drawing, playing an instrument, decorating cakes, or public speaking when we’re open doing it. Getting started is the hardest part. It may seem as though our outlets for creativity and expression become limited as we get older. Finding spare time to learn a new skill becomes more of an arduous process when we have more responsibilities and then a future career on our shoulders. However, we do not need to become experts at underwater basket weaving, sculpting, or skateboarding. I certainly do not have ten thousand hours of time to invest in becoming an expert. But, 15 minutes here and there to at least try and learn a new skill is manageable. Think about how much more distinguished we become when we can share these fun newly formed habits of ours to a co-worker, a potential significant other, or an interviewer. I could go on about the benefits of learning something new. But, I encourage you to try it out yourself. It only takes 15 minutes of your time.
