Passions and Practicality
It troubles me that my lists of activities I am good at and the things I enjoy don't match up with what it is I want to obtain.
There are plenty of ways to reassure myself that it is all fine and we are all diverse individuals with a complex past and desires. But it always rounds back to seeing the people I know with their singular education focus completed and now a job in the field they studied for.
Two questions come from this:
Are they happy?
Are my friends crazy or simple minded folk?
Turns out they are just lying to themselves, so a yes to both questions.
Many of them have had plans laid out for them from middle school of what school they would attend and the degree they should get to be perceived as most desirable to an employer.
The fascinating part about these people is they never talk about the work they do, even when asked directly "what do you enjoy about your work?" usually has a reply something like "oh it's good, it pays well. Lets not talk about that it's the weekend." or "I don't know." I don't know is not a valid response for anything in life. You know, you just don't want to think.
So what kinds of conclusions can I draw from these successful friends?
Sure they are intelligent and capable people but they have removed their passion from at least 40 hours a week of their lives, leading them to drone through their weeks thinking only about the money they receive and the weekend ahead. The weekend ahead that they fill with high hopes of socializing, television, bars, and sleeping in. Then Saturday shows up and they are frustrated with no response to text messages and a disturbingly large pile of laundry that seems to follow them around the apartment disapproving of their life choices.
Should I follow the pack, do what I love, or is there a middle ground?
The passion would be cooking. Even my mistakes taste brilliant. Every time with a mouth full of food the response from someone new is "why aren't you a cook? OMG om nom nom"
"I don't like the idea of cooking to the demand of someone else." The question is though, is this a valid reason to not follow passion? It isn't my only passion why should I need to follow it. Also do I want to work six days a week and every weekend for the a large portion of the rest of my life.
Where do you find the middle ground of passions and practicality?
For me it is in computer science, resulting in a job that I can't yet predict that will make use of technical skills and creativity in subtle and hopefully ingenious ways. I have to hope that it won't be a job that grows only to be a rut but still has some consistency.
But what passions are the rest of you leaving behind in this pursuit of education?
There are plenty of ways to reassure myself that it is all fine and we are all diverse individuals with a complex past and desires. But it always rounds back to seeing the people I know with their singular education focus completed and now a job in the field they studied for.
Two questions come from this:
Are they happy?
Are my friends crazy or simple minded folk?
Turns out they are just lying to themselves, so a yes to both questions.
Many of them have had plans laid out for them from middle school of what school they would attend and the degree they should get to be perceived as most desirable to an employer.
The fascinating part about these people is they never talk about the work they do, even when asked directly "what do you enjoy about your work?" usually has a reply something like "oh it's good, it pays well. Lets not talk about that it's the weekend." or "I don't know." I don't know is not a valid response for anything in life. You know, you just don't want to think.
So what kinds of conclusions can I draw from these successful friends?
Sure they are intelligent and capable people but they have removed their passion from at least 40 hours a week of their lives, leading them to drone through their weeks thinking only about the money they receive and the weekend ahead. The weekend ahead that they fill with high hopes of socializing, television, bars, and sleeping in. Then Saturday shows up and they are frustrated with no response to text messages and a disturbingly large pile of laundry that seems to follow them around the apartment disapproving of their life choices.
Should I follow the pack, do what I love, or is there a middle ground?
The passion would be cooking. Even my mistakes taste brilliant. Every time with a mouth full of food the response from someone new is "why aren't you a cook? OMG om nom nom"
"I don't like the idea of cooking to the demand of someone else." The question is though, is this a valid reason to not follow passion? It isn't my only passion why should I need to follow it. Also do I want to work six days a week and every weekend for the a large portion of the rest of my life.
Where do you find the middle ground of passions and practicality?
For me it is in computer science, resulting in a job that I can't yet predict that will make use of technical skills and creativity in subtle and hopefully ingenious ways. I have to hope that it won't be a job that grows only to be a rut but still has some consistency.
But what passions are the rest of you leaving behind in this pursuit of education?