What If You Have Multiple Conflicting Interests?

A friend of mine, JAD KHALILI, once bestowed his wisdom upon me in a short exchange on the way back to my college apartment. He told me:

“Sean, I love what you're doing... just make sure not to spread yourself too thin.”

I kept his advice in the back of my mind whenever I entered new situations or took on new responsibilities. So how did that go for me?

I’d say his advice still holds up — but a core part of my identity is simply trying new things. This semester (Fall 2025 — and I know future me is going to read this and think: wow, that was so long ago), I took it upon myself to try even more new things while still maintaining depth in the commitments I take on.

Right now, I’m looking at:

• Fencing

Figure 1. Literally me (the jackets are so cool) 🤩

• Volleyball (okay this carried over from my previous season of life)
• Pitching “The Threat of Quantum Computing on Modern Day Encryptions” (???)

Figure 2. Pitching @ Problems Worth Solving (5th)

• SpaceCraft VR (working on an Orion sim since the lunar lander sim isn’t ready yet...)
• Officer for TCCA (humanitarian work)
• Videography job for $13/hr — yes, they’re thrilled to not hire a real videographer and pay actual money (;-;)

Figure 3. Yucatán Study Abroad Short Film | IRAP 2025

• Meloy Program at A&M (and pitching in one of their competitions to the Director of Cybersecurity at Sandia National Labs... and winning 3rd ?????)
• Grading Differential Equations for 10 hrs/week at $9.50/hr — at least I get to talk to my fun professor, YI SHENG LIM (and honestly, my duty to finish what I started is the only reason I haven’t dropped it — never again)

All that along with taking my actual A&M classes, getting thrown into electrical engineering concepts with vague intuition and professors skipping half the slides saying “oh that’s trivial,” and applying to software internships while learning everything for them because, for some reason, it’s nothing like anything else I’m doing.

At this point… what would I even consider myself?

• Major-wise: Computer Engineer
• Job-wise: Videographer and mathematician?
• Hobby-wise: Fencer and volleyballer??
• Competition-wise: Pitcher??? (like the speaker, not the cup)
• Research-wise: Aerospace with a hint of coding????

Sometimes I envy people who can just pick one thing and become really good at it. But other times, I wonder what I’d do without this chaotic bundle of interests that make me, me.

Do I feel stretched thin? Some days, absolutely — especially during exam prep, competitions, and interviews. But I think people should do what’s fun, not just what’s easy. And a lot of fun things start hard, stay a little hard, but pay off in the end — not just in results but in the journey of getting there.

Oh, and these are just the academically associated ones ; - ;

+ Blogging(Yes this just links to the main page, whaddya expect), Backpacking/Hiking, Art, 3D Printing Swords, Cooking, and let's not forget my favorite pasttime... Yapping :>>>