Student

Unexpected interconnections

When our blogger Donatella Gesparro left Italy two years ago she felt like she was leaving behind all the interests and projects she was involved in for the good cause of pursuing one: saving the world. But quite the opposite happened, and her passions started "meeting and merging", creating a flow of new opportunities.

© Sven MenschelI tend to call myself a multipotentialite since I watched an enlightening TEDx talk, some years ago, by career coach and blogger Emilie Wapnick. Multipotentialites do a lot of stuff, and they tend to do it, if not good, at least quite decently (and this is me trying to fake some modesty I hope you appreciate).

When moving to the NL too I thought I was leaving behind all the interests and projects I was involved in for the good cause of pursuing one: saving the world, of course, through regenerative agriculture. But I was wrong.

Quite the opposite happened. Just after a few months, I managed to get myself an old piano so I could continue playing. And this lead to musical collaborations with musician housemates and even to some concerts. I used to write and perform poetry and used to organise poetry slams in Italy. And last year March I was asked to co-organise and host the first poetry slam in Wageningen, which is now 1,5 years old with 8 editions behind it. I even rediscovered my long-lost passion for dance, and started taking lessons just 15 minutes biking from home. But that’s not all. Not only parallel paths I’ve always considered these artistic parts of mine being just a parallel path to my scientific and agricultural studies, just running alongside, never really interacting. Magic happens, though, when interests are shared and passions resonate. That’s when the arts become unsuspected allies even for science. And not only the green world of Wageningen noticed my very green poems. People and organisations started calling me to perform nature-related poems to sustainability-related events. I even began writing poetry on themes, or with words given by the audience in a workshop. That is: a kick outside of my comfort zone. Because I used to consider poetry as an almost sacred activity which could happen only in inspired moments. I realised I can write ‘on command’ and I can make use of a skill I developed when I want to. Especially with themes I really care about, without undermining any sacredness, but amplifying it. Edge effect Isn’t this a positive edge effect? Where two (eco)systems interact, you’ll find elements of both but also completely new ones that only exist in that interaction zone. As Konrad Lorenz wrote in Behind the mirror: “If two independent systems are coupled together, entirely new, unexpected system characteristics will emerge, of whose appearance there was previously not the slightest suggestion.” I am so curious to see what will emerge from these new connections.

Leave a Reply


Je moet inloggen om een comment te plaatsen.