Edited by Ajitesh Vishwanath
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been told ,”Follow your passion.” Chase it like the streak of light chases a falling star. While that is good advice, I have lately been thinking what really is passion?Is it just a list of things I talk about in my Superset profile? And why should I “follow” it, is it not an innate feeling?
What’s funny is if someone were to ask me what are some things I am passionate about, I would probably talk about activities or things I was extremely repulsed by at first. I did not like reading as a kid. I found it unnecessary and frankly so many pages of words seemed like a lot of work. Fast forward a few years and after the miracle of the Percy Jackson series, I love reading, from seemingly endless novels to the contents of a shampoo bottle. I am happy to read it all.Barring certain course readings of course.This got me thinking that perhaps passion is not an inborn feeling, maybe it randomly strikes us one day, like lightning and then begins to bloom. And that does not make it any less significant.
I did not come to Ashoka with the intention of pursuing the Biology major that I now intend to do. A lot of my friends have landed up taking courses that they did not think they would take. Other than the fact that this has made it harder to explain to our relatives what we are studying, they are really enjoying it. I also did take up a course in Biology, however hesitantly. What happened is that over the months, I saw reading for the course evolve into a habit and my hesitance started to deteriorate. I wore myself down and slowly, I began to actually enjoy it, although I wasn’t very good at it. I often confuse myself while thinking about this because sometimes I believe I just wasn’t open to learning but I think the greater problem was, I was of the view, if I didn’t come to be fond of it naturally, or If I weren’t born with innate qualities to excel in it, perhaps it wasn’t worth pursuing. But is that really the only way to go about it?
There’s a recurrently used concept of Japanese philosophy, “Ikigai”. It’s a sweet spot for finding what fuels you. It’s an intersection of what you’re good at and what you love along with what you can be paid for and what the world needs. Over the years, I think the definition of this has evolved a little differently for me. To me I think it highlights that if you love something it might not necessarily mean you’re good at it and vice versa. That is also perhaps why what we’re passionate about is so often confused with what we’re good at because when we love something, we do it more diligently and inevitably, that leads to improvement.
I am allowed to love to do something and be terrible at it. The point of it I think is to go out there and do it “just because”. That obviously does not translate to needing to do things that I disliked in the hope that it will grow on me. The fact of the matter is that I decided on what I disliked about a lot of things without giving them a fair chance because they looked hard.That made me miss out on a lot of wonderful opportunities. If passion was inborn and to be chased, it would perhaps be more of a confinement than joy. I, as a human being, am a constant work in progress. As I grow, I might also outgrow my passions, or find out I have so many more.Why then must I limit myself to what I am born with when I can be so much more?