Going Back To Pursue Living as a Polymath & This Time With Receipt

Let’s start with my happiest year of my life. It was that time when I was genuinely happy and could spend hours studying whichever subjects I fancy and delve into it. But soon the reality hits different that I became my family’s sole breadwinner. I didn’t get to finish my degree, chose money over everything and on top of those, there were internal pressure that though, I was nearing the end of my thesis, I decided to give it all up.

I spent almost the entire 3 years forgetting my passion to learn new things and was solely focused on paying the bills, the medical fees, and everything in between only to survive. The world that I used to know and built crumbled just like that.

At first, I thought wanting and attempted to die was the most difficult thing in life. But wanting to live is even more challenging. Even these days, I keep this card in the back of my mind that I have the option to exercise my free will even If it’s against my faith. I do not want to use it though but it’s still going to be there for a very long time.

But somehow, I chose the challenging options; to continue to live even I must start from the ground up or even fight for it. Afterall, I am still wanting to know, how far can I go and if I were to start from the ground up.

What does it have to do with being a polymath?

Technically, I didn’t start from the ground up. It’s like I have a dusty library I haven’t revisited in years because my brain was on autopilot and my energy was allocated somewhere else.

Now that I have escaped the life and death trap situation for now, I have more energy and time to revisit that library.

Recently, I am applying to finish my undergraduate at this age and on a fastest path for master’s and PhD programs. Having to take an accelerated and specialized class for it, I realized that though now, I am about to study Urban planning and design, I had quite a bit exposure to all the subjects such as Architecture, design, and many other related subjects due to my previous experience and interests in those.

That made me remember that I could be anything, being thrown into any field and would still survive with some basic knowledge of said field. That realization ignites a long-lost passion to lifelong learning and pursuit to become a polymath.

I spent many years living in my own world where I was surrounded by people who think degree doesn’t matter. Afterall our skills are all that mattered but when I stepped out of there, it was another version of a game I haven’t conquered.

When I was writing out my resume, cover letter, and even having to show that I know of said subject made me realized that there is a world out there where I am nobody. It’s a world where my voice didn’t matter because I didn’t have certifications or the necessary things to show I know how do things.

Now I learned that even if I were to become a polymath and as someone with high curiosity and needs of novelty, a proper certification is needed not only to measure my understanding but also to show to people out there that I am more than a capable of the things I learned and can use it in a work environment or getting paid for it.

There’s interesting thing I realized and reflected a lot lately especially on this one.

“Not to mention schooling, especially the university had imposed a time frame for one to graduate. For someone like me, being timed to learn something is nearly impossible.”

While it is nearly impossible for me to learn a subject within a time frame, I am trying to frame this idea that the end goal is just the certification. I don’t really have to do extra things that aren’t required for now. I just need to have one straight goal: earning the paper that certify I know that thing, nothing less nothing more.

From my previous personal expedition and journey, I learned how much it costs to conduct any research that I fancy. I didn’t really have a goal to publish a book or create something out of it other than articles because again, I don’t have the degree to back it up, but I learned my lessons now.
In the future, I might try to send all that personal research I fancy to people with the same interest. Who knows if that could contribute to a thing or two but at least when I try to present myself, I have something to back it up that I have a first a degree and a second, the certification that I am not just some clueless dumbo.

Having to get into a more professional environment these past few months, I learned that is the new world and the new game that I am easing myself into. I don’t necessarily hate the job I have right now, but it would be nice if I could go back to where I was financially and eventually having my own personal research and the freedom to learn anything without worrying about money or financial issues.

In the grand scheme of things, all I need is just the action to get my product or services out there.

That reminds me, being stationed in a place that has lesser distraction is a blessing on its own. I get to reflect a lot on life and think about my future actions and things that support my personal 2026 goals and beyond.