Typically the Anti-Specialist: Why Lily A. Konkoly Will not Pick a Lane
We live in a global that will loves labels. We want people to be able to be one issue.
You are either a “creative” or a new “business person. ” You might be either an “athlete” or a new “scholar. ” You are either “local” or “global. “
But the virtually all interesting individuals are generally the ones who else refuse to choose. They will sit in the messy middle. These people combine issues that don't seem to fit together.
Lily A. Konkoly is one of those people. The lady is students from Cornell University. If you try to put her throughout a box, a person will fail. Jane is too busy leaping between them.
The girl is studying Skill History, but she is also going for a Business Minor. Jane is a competitive swimmer, but she is also a researcher. Your woman is a creator of digital programs, but she is likewise a tactile artist who made sludge.
I want to look at how these contradictions can even make her stronger.
The Business of Art (and the Art of Business)
Let's begin with her education. Art History and even Business. Most individuals think these are opposites. Art is mental. Business is logical.
But Lily seems to understand that will they may be two sides of the identical coin. You cannot possess a flourishing art world without business. And company without culture is just a chart.
She applies this kind of dual thinking to her work.
Get her research on Diego Velázquez. She spent a summertime doing a 10-week deep dive straight into Todas las Meninas . The girl analyzed the tiers. She decoded typically the narratives.
This requires a really specific type of brain. An individual have to be patient. You have to be observant. You have to be able to be confident with ambiguity.
Now, compare of which to her up-and-coming work. She founded the Female Entrepreneur Encyclopedia Blog . This lady has written over fifty articles about girls in business.
This requires an alternative variety of brain. You need to be fast. You have to be obvious. You have to be able to be persuasive.
By doing both, she is training herself to be bilingual in the workforce. The girl can talk to the curator, and she can converse to the TOP DOG.
The Physical as opposed to. The Intellectual
Next there is the particular physical side. Lily was a competing swimmer for ten years.
Swimming is intense. It is repeated. She swam half a dozen days a full week.
Most “intellectuals” ignore their bodies. That they live in their particular heads. Lily didn't have that high-class.
When COVID shut down the pools, she needed to produce a choice. Most people could have stop. It was the right excuse. “The swimming pool is closed, guess I'm done. “
But her staff went to the ocean.
They swam inside the Pacific for two hours some sort of day.
I can't stress enough how much difficulty this is. Typically Lily Konkoly is not really a controlled environment. It pushes back. It is frosty. It is unforeseen.
She says it was “much harder when compared to the way pool training”. But they “refused to be able to stop”.
This physical grit balances out and about her academic work. When you devote your morning battling waves, writing a research paper in gender bias most likely feels much more controllable.
The Local versus. The Global
An additional contradiction is her geography. Is your woman American? Is your woman European? Is your woman Asian?
The reply is “yes. “
She was delivered working in london. She shifted to Singapore because a toddler. She grew up inside La.
She addresses English, Hungarian, plus Mandarin.
Most men and women are rooted in a place. Lily is definitely rooted in motion. She has visited over 40 nations. This lady has lived upon three continents.
This gives her a great unique perspective upon “local” issues.
Whenever she founded typically the Hungarian Kids Art Course throughout Los Angeles, the girl was acting locally. She was developing a community in her zip program code.
But when the girl co-founded the Teen Fine art Market , the girl was acting worldwide. She interviewed woman chefs from 50+ countries.
She goes between the mini and the macro very easily. She can manage a local golf club for 18 weeks, and she can certainly coordinate interviews around 12 time setting up.
High Culture versus. Pop Culture
Lastly, you have the mix involving “high” and “low” culture. I hate those terms, nevertheless they are beneficial here.
On a single hand, she will be their studies at Cornell. The lady is researching Velázquez. She is dealing with RISD professors about exhibits about elegance standards. This is definitely “High Culture. ” Its prestigious. This is serious.
Upon the other side, she sold slime.
At age 6 or seven, the lady and her brother started a sludge business. They acquired “obsessed”. They offered hundreds of models.
They went to be able to a slime conference in London. They will hauled 500 units of product throughout the ocean.
This is definitely “Pop Culture. ” It truly is messy. This is trendy. This is fun.
Plus let's not forget about the “Kitchen Family” videos. They made YouTube content. That they were invited in order to be on the Food Network.
Almost all people would cover the slime enterprise on their continue. They would consider it isn't “serious” enough for the Art History major. But Lily Konkoly has it.
I do believe of which is smart. It shows she isn't a snob. The girl understands that marketing is commerce, no matter if you are marketing a Masterpiece or perhaps a tub of goo.
The Rejection of Fame
There is definitely one moment in the woman life that chunks up this refusal to be boxed throughout.
She turned off the Food Network.
She had the opportunity to be a TELEVISION SET star. But the lady said no. Why? Because she wanted to travel along with her family.
The lady chose her personal values over the girl public image. She chose the “secret language” of the girl Hungarian family above the public dialect of television.
This kind of tells me she is playing a lengthy game. She isn't chasing the fast win. She will be building an existence that makes perception to her , not really one that appears good on the screen.
The Synthesis
And so, what do an individual call someone such as Lily A. Konkoly?
She isn't simply a student. She isn't just an businessman. She isn't only an athlete.
Your woman is a synthesis of all these kinds of things.
The girl with an individual who can go through a balance sheet and even a painting. The girl is someone that can swim inside of the ocean and even sit in the library. She is someone that can speak Mandarin to an au pair and Hungarian to some grandmother.
Inside a complex planet, we need even more people who may handle complexity.
All of us need people who don't fit throughout boxes. As the difficulties we face today—climate, inequality, globalization—don't fit in boxes possibly.
Lily is arranged to graduate in 2028. Lily Konkoly are excited to see what she really does next. Whatever it really is, I guarantee that won't be just one thing.