Follow your own path
How do you discover what you are passionate about? Is your passion found within the things that make you feel good or what you are good at?
I struggle between the two concepts of the word “passion” myself. As college students, our passion is a key factor towards the path of our education, or so we assume. We all want to turn our passion into a career, and the best way a 20-year-old can start that process is choosing a college major we feel fits our interests. We all want to have a job we enjoy going to everyday, right?
My time as a college student has been filled with unanswered questions on what is the best path for me. Making a recent switch in majors, I already have the experience of trying something I’ve mistaken felt passionate about.
I was previously a Nutrition major, who was struggling in my classes and began dreading attending them everyday. In hopes for finding a better subject for my interests, I changed my major to Sociology with minors in Psychology and Music, with aspirations in the long term to become a Music Therapist. And now here I am, sitting in music theory hopelessly confused as I stare down at the intervals on my manuscript paper, once again asking myself, “is this really for me?”
Well the answer, my college friends, really is found within yourself. But if you think you are the only one who is questioning their future, I can 100% honestly tell you that is not true. I, along with most likely every college student that has ever existed, is thinking the exact same things that are going through your head.
So, how do we figure out what is best for us?
The best start to this process is probably deciding what passion means to you. If you want it to be something you consider yourself good or “the best” at then you probably already have your mind set on what it is you want to do.
But if you are like me, you think more about what you enjoy. Enjoyment is the key in my opinion, because I don’t want to see myself dreading getting out of bed to go to work as much as I did going to organic chemistry when I was a Nutrition major.
Making the decision to change a major is difficult, I know, but sometimes it is for the better. I was not the best at nutrition, trust me, but it does still spark my interest. It was when I honestly did not enjoy my days being involved in the major that I realized it was time for a change. I may still have interests, and will maybe take up nutrition as a hobby, but it just could not fulfill my passion.
In my opinion, you shouldn’t do something you are best at, because if you begin to struggle you will start to feel discouraged. I suppose if you enjoy what you are best at that is a different connection. But if that were true I’d have to ask you, do you enjoy it for what it is or do you just enjoy it because you are good at it?
I think that if you enjoy it, it is worth it. If you struggle, you are learning. If you can ask yourself these questions and honestly answer that it is your true passion, then stick with it. Even if it seems hard at times, see those difficulties as motivation.
And if you don’t enjoy it, don’t be afraid to try something new. You are not quitting when you change your major. We are all in college to experiment and experience multiple aspects. Don’t force yourself to stay in something that isn’t right for you.
I guess the message I want to leave you with from this is don’t be afraid to have doubts at times, but overall love what you do, do what you love, and don’t give up.
Photos by Marissa Rousseau