The Renaissance Woman

Hello Readers!

How lovely it is to have you visit my brand new blog! I am sure it will exceed your highest expectations.

The name is fairly self explanatory, but to interested parties I will elaborate. The term "Renaissance Man refers to a multi-talented educated polymath with expertise in many different arenas, the most famous example being Leonardo Davinci. (The term also refers to an episode of Star Trek by the same name, and a 1994 comedy featuring Danny Devito.) Several factors led to the cultivation of these individuals in post medieval Europe, some pertinent ones being the Crusades and increased communication with the East, a population boom related to advances in agriculture, and the colonization of Africa, India, and the Americas by various European states. This explanation is broad, and fails to account for the fact that England experienced the first effects of the renaissance at least a hundred years after Italy, but I digress.

I have become very fascinated by the idea of cultivating many different skills instead of relentlessly pursuing one hobby and ignoring all other explorations. I sing, that is how I spend most of my free time, but I also really enjoy acting and writing. I've picked up guitar and feel that new pursuits serve to increase my skill and interest in singing and are not mere distractions or a high-schoolers excuse for procrastination. In other words, I feel that diverse skills build on one another and don't just suck energy from the main, capital pursuit.

My mother has her own theory on this. She thinks that in order to be an educated person you must complete three tasks. You must play a musical instrument, you must speak a foreign language, and you must master something to call your own. I like the practical recipe this provides, even though I myself have yet to completely fulfill these guidelines. I speak conversational French, I am on my way to mastering singing (but not there yet either), and I am a very mediocre guitar player. I have great potential, but to put it bluntly, it is good that I am still young because there is so much more that I yearn to achieve.

So join me on my journey to becoming a renaissance woman! Relish in my triumphs and suffer my failures. Indulge my musings; ponder my philosophy. But mostly, Enjoy!