by Joelle Steele

We live in a society that loves to label people, to classify them. He’s a house husband, she’s a barista, he’s a Christian, she’s a CEO, he’s a millionaire, etc. When it comes to me, those who know me best tend to label me as a free spirit. I can live with that. I really don’t like being labeled at all, but if someone needs to hang another appropriate label on me, I would prefer to be called multifaceted, multidimensional, well-rounded, or at the very least a Renaissance woman, and at the very best, a polymath. Those are a lot better than being described as an amateur, dabbler, or dilettante simply because I do so many different things.

Free spirits are generally defined as nonconformists and free-thinkers who are uninhibited and don’t conform to the normal rules of society. That’s definitely me. Polymaths are defined as those who possess a wide range of knowledge about complex subject matter and are good at problem-solving in their fields. And that’s me too, a free spirit and a polymath.

And I do live the life of a free-spirited polymath. I follow my heart and make my choices about  people, things, and activities. Whether it’s work or a hobby, I do in-depth study – private instruction, classes, reading a ton of books, or all three. Then I practice, honing my skills. And if I see a career in it and definitely know I can do something on a professional level, I go my own way, working independently, almost always self-employed, and almost always home-based.

But there are pros and cons to being either a polymath or a free spirit. Put the two together, and there are even more pros and cons. For me, most of the pros and cons come to the forefront in my work. For example, one of my areas of expertise is in face and ear identification of people in photographs. I have more than 40 years of experience measuring, analyzing, and comparing 25,000+ faces and ears to 75,000+ exemplars, and I am court-certified as an expert witness in that practice. But I don’t have a degree in this subject because there is no such degree. It is given only an insignificant amount of attention within the study of anthropology. As a result, while some anthropologists have a passing familiarity with it, most have nowhere near the experience and expertise that I do. Not bragging, just a fact.

Now I could have easily taken a degree in anthropology, but since I had no intention of becoming an anthropologist, I instead channeled my free spirit side and opted to study face and ear comparisons independently under experts in the specific areas that I wanted to learn. And I didn’t go to work in law enforcement because that free spirit in me doesn’t like hierarchical, corporate-type organizations where one must conform to a particular way of doing things. As a result, I have had the time to do additional research and experimentation into other ways of more accurately analyzing and comparing faces and ears that the high-falutin’ scientific associations dismiss because it isn’t the way they do it.

My other career pursuits are similar: I’m also a court-certified handwriting forgery expert; a court-certified expert in the usual and customary practices of the landscape industry; an interior designer; an astrologer; an artist; and a writer, editor, researcher, illustrator, and publisher. I knew that all of these would be my careers when I was a teenager, and that’s when I first started studying all of these things. I have also tried my hand at some things that I didn’t really enjoy much and quickly abandoned: designing and making clothing, shoes, bags, and jewelry. But I have never stopped studying and experimenting with new things and new ways of doing things. And when I write, I usually concentrate on the subjects related to my career pursuits, although my free spirit enjoys writing novels too!

Now what are the cons of being a free-spirited polymath? There’s actually just one big con, and that’s the amount of effort necessary to achieve credibility for what I do career-wise. Society – and certain segments of society that love labels so much – really, really, really want people like me to have those magical little letters after my name: PhD. Not gonna happen in my case. A bachelor’s degree was it for me. But I just keep working and hoping that some day people will judge me (and others) by how well I do what I do, without the need to squeeze me into their preformatted little molds.

In my opinion, everyone has the potential to be a free spirit and/or a polymath. It’s all about balancing your choices and needs – and not falling into the trap of thinking that being a free spirit means you’ve got a free pass to be irresponsible and unreliable. No one gets anywhere in life that way! My work, my hobbies, my family, and my friends have always been very closely intertwined, and I am always grateful for all the trips down the many paths I have taken along the way to where I am today.