I have always been intrigued and motivated by the idea that finding your passion makes all your problems melt away. The purpose of life was to find YOUR specific reason for being on this planet. Even back in elementary school we always learned about all of these influential people like Martin Luther King Jr. , Mother Teresa, Harriet Tubman, and Amelia Earhart. They all had one thing in common: they followed their passion. I knew that if I wanted to be someone worthy that I needed to have a driving force. Ever since then I have been on a mission to find myself and find what my purpose is.Â
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As I went through school, I knew I wanted to have a career in medicine, but I still felt incomplete. I was disappointed because it didn’t feel like that driving force that I had learned about. It didn’t compare to any of the leaders I had learned about, but I told myself that a small step is better than no step. I was so busy worrying about what my passion is or should be. I started to feel like the clock was ticking against me and that my life needed to be decided before I started my freshman year of college. After I started college, I felt so behind once again and was now surrounded by a whole new group of people who seemingly had their lives together. Whether it was socially, professionally or academically people just had everything together. They had their drive but where was mine? I kept trying to search for my passion early on as I started to join clubs I resonated with. I was always under the impression that when I find my passion I’ll just know.Â
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I was extremely wrong. I realized I found my passion almost 6 months later. It wasn’t until I was looking at a minor that aligned with my interests that I took a step back and realized that I had found my passion long before I realized. I was just too busy and occupied with the idea of getting to the destination, that I never took a step back to look at how far I had come. I always felt like finding my passion was a race or that once I got my “ah-hah” moment my life was set. Like a click of a button everything would change once I found it.
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I wish I could just go back and tell myself to not be so obsessed with finding my passion and that everything would work out. Everything went by so fast that I forgot to take a moment to understand my growth. I also realized that finding your passion isn’t like a Disney movie where after you find it, it’s happily ever after, but instead, it is the start of a new chapter in your life . It’s hard not to compare yourself to such historic figures — but if every person just took time to enjoy what they put their energy into, the world would be a better place.