Alex

Not so long ago, Alex, a 17 year old kid, had managed to somehow acquire around 500 dollars, and being the ever impulsive buyer, decided that it would be a great time to learn how to play the guitar, the electric guitar. So knowing next to nothing about guitars and their appropriate accessories, he set off to the nearest instrument store around 40 minutes from his home. When Alex stepped inside, all the guitars that were displayed on the wall caught his eye, they all looked ‘cool’ and ‘interesting’ but he had to stay within his price range. So, right there at the counter, he decided to finally look into what guitars were available and decided on one and asked the store worker for it. And that was how, an hour later, he sat at home, with his shiny brand new electric guitar that he could only stare at because he had no equipment for.

Alex had actually bought a pick and cable but had nothing to connect it to, the cable itself had been too pricey for him, but he also didn’t have a strap nor case for it and had to keep it laid down on his bed because buying a stand had slipped his mind. But he was determined to learn how to play the electric guitar and even watched videos online and bought a book… but it was quickly shelved right alongside the ‘Gaelic for beginners’ book he had bought 5 years prior, and the Japanese dictionary next to the ‘Learn to design clothes’ and the other countless books and items he had picked up when he decided to start something new.

It wasn’t that Alex was too lazy or weak-willed to continue something, even though that seemed to be the case most of the time, but it was just that every other week he became interested in something new. And he just as quickly lost interest and moved on to a new obsession. It had always been that way too since his younger years.

This side of him could be seen as harmless and even a little silly to any outsider, but it was quite troubling for his family and friends to be witness too. He was too quick to take up new projects and drop them just like that and because of this, the things he would buy would often just collect dust and the money he had wasted on buying those supplies for his new ventures would be wasted.

“Eh? Now you want to be a chef?” his sister commented when he suddenly grew an interest in cooking, the week after he had been obsessed with making clay figures.

“Weren’t you learning Arabic?” A friend asked him after he saw Alex carrying around a paper with Norwegian phrases.

“Can you throw this out or sell it?” his dad asked him pointing to a box with art supplies Alex had bought when he had decided to learn how to paint landscapes.

And he always responded with a shrug and sometimes even a “well, I’m still planning to do that… after I’m done with this.”

It all came to a stop when Alex, after-school, had declared he would start working part time. Wondering why that sudden announcement, his mother asked him what had made him decide that.

“So I can buy my own car to modify it,” he answered her with a smile.

At that, his mother promptly sat him down and told him she wasn’t going to stand by and watch the yard get full of car parts that would never be touched again.

“You can get a job if you want, you can find something you want to do, but if you’re just going to leave things undone, then don’t even start them,” she told him.

Alex protested, but his mother wouldn’t change her mind.

And when the rest of the family heard, they took her side which prompted Alex to complain to his friend. But as his friend nodded, he actually felt relief that he wouldn’t start something again.

“I can’t believe it,” Alex muttered.

“Yup,” his friend said not paying much attention.

The rest of the day, Alex spent moping around, and halfheartedly looking over all his instructional books and kits.

He was going to learn Arabic... but he wanted to learn Norwegian first because he had learned about a Norwegian author that had written countless books, and even though there were translations of his works readily available, he really wanted to read his works in the original language.

Alex turned to the sewing kit. He had one day realized he had great ideas for clothing items but after reading a college student blog, had decided that learning how to cook was more important because he was going off to college soon… but in that case, he would want to place some decorations in his dorm, because of this, he had decided that he would start painting…

But when he was thinking of what to paint he the realized that he would need references and so he had bought some photography books… But studying different cameras made him realize that those things were so complex and interesting so he decided to study other electronics. He bought a book on elevators and then decided that it would be great learning how electricity works… which then prompted him to learn about computers and he was amazed when he learned you could build your own… which of course led him to buy several parts to start building but once he realized it wasn’t as simple as that, he dropped it and focused on something new.

Seeing all those books, manuals, instructions, guides, and kits he had accumulated made Alex wish he could live for a thousand years, or have ten clones of himself because he wanted to do all those things and more, but actually doing those things required his attention and patience, which he wasn’t good at, it was a wonder how he could even pay attention in school seeing how he was with his personal projects and activities.

When Alex expressed this sentiment to his sister, she merely scoffed at him.

“Just do one thing,” she said standing from the couch.

“But you don’t get it, I want to do a lot of things,” he told her.

“Stop being so whimsical, it’s annoying,” she said leaving the living room.

Whimsical? Was Alex just whimsical?

“Does everyone think I’m whimsical?” Alex thought to himself, “that’s not true, and I’ll prove it.”

He marched straight to his room and picked a random book from his shelf…

‘Calligraphy for beginners’

“Uh…” Alex wordlessly put the book back and moved on to the next book. This time he was actually determined to stick with something, and he wasn’t planning to just leave it halfway through!

But, unfortunately, this was Alex. Had it been someone else entirely, they would have probably retained that determination and actually stuck with, and even improved in, that certain hobby or skill.

And so around three weeks later, a record, Alex got bored and found something else he wanted to do.