“What is your passion?” I was asked this question, or varying forms of it, at least five times within the first week of my freshman year. Each answer varied slightly depending on my audience, but one thing remained consistent: it was always bullshit. I performed a rehearsed line that sounded eerily similar to the thesis statement in my college application essay. For some reason, I believed that at 18 years old I should have a passion that is my driving force in life. Millennials have adapted this concept that our personal, academic, and career goals should all be in pursuit of this ideal “passion.”
I desperately searched for my passion, as if I would acquire this abstract concept at any moment. All I needed was to crack this very specific and unique code and once I did, I would open a door to endless opportunities and motivation. Truthfully,I had no idea what I was doing or what I wanted out of life. I watched others pursue their passions with envy, not considering they probably had as much internal struggle as myself, masked with the same practiced conviction.
Via Pexels
I frantically sought out a life-defining moment that would guide me to a path of certainty, but it never came. Because that’s not how life works. If I was asked what my passion was when I was 5 years old, it probably would’ve been chicken nuggets because at 5 years old life primarily revolved around food and naps. If I was asked when I was 10, it probably would’ve been Club Penguin because it was all the rage at the time. If I was asked when I was 15, I probably would have said forensic psychology because I was watching an unhealthy amount of Criminal Minds at the time and had little understanding that TV was often very wrong. When you asked me when I was 18, I gave an answer that eloquently summed up my love for the major I had not even started yet.
Now I’m 20. I no longer have a Club Penguin account, I haven’t watched Criminal Minds in years, I switched the major I was so “passionate” after taking three courses in it and my love for chicken nuggets only extends so far. Because as years pass, priorities change, commitments change and most importantly, we change. When I was younger, my knowledge and understanding of the world didn’t extend past my hometown. As we enter college a whole new world of experiences opens before us. We meet people from all around the world and we take classes in anything and everything we can imagine. Our passions are developed overtime from a collection of new information and experiences. Often these passions will change, because our feelings change.
At the end of our lifetime we won’t be looking back at a single path driven by a single passion. We will be looking at various paths that our passions led us down, that marks that period of time in our lives. So don’t spend time seeking out a single passion. Spend that time learning and passions will develop from those lessons learned.