Why Are You Passionate About…?

Passion has become a hot term over the years. Many times people will start a new project and call it their “passion project”. There’s a sentiment that everyone will find what they’re passionate about and that’s when life will all make sense. And especially as my friends and I apply to grad schools, a common essay question we have to answer is, “Why are you passionate about *insert field here*?”. 

But passion is an incredibly committal term. By definition, passion means “a strong feeling or emotion” or “an object of someone’s love, liking, or desire”. Like whoa, that’s kind of intense. And maybe it’s just the fact that I have commitment issues (oops), but to say that something is my passion is a weighty statement. 

And in my opinion, I don’t think passion is something that just happens. Maybe for some people, it does. Nothing is ever totally out of the question. The idea that someone learns about something and they immediately commit to it can happen. But for the common person, I think passion is something cultivated rather than something instant. 

Here, I’ll give an example. 

I am incredibly willing to say that I am passionate about my friends. My friends are people whom I love, cherish, and would give up so much for. These are the people I gladly choose to spend time, money, and hardships with. My friends are the reason I’ve gotten this far in life and will always be something that mean a lot to me. 

But my friendships did not happen overnight. Some might have developed quicker than others sure, but all of them took effort. For the friends I have now, it took a lot of communication and time to get to the point where I can call them my friends. It was never something that just happened in one go, it was never always easy. It’s the friends that I have now where I learned how to deal with arguments without totally cutting ties and instead set boundaries. It’s the friends that I have now where I can have the hard and gnarly conversations about the world with. It’s a long and arduous process to have and keep these friends, but that’s not what others see in the process. To random strangers, it may just seem that I really just love my friends and that it’s easy for me to do that, but I know the reality is much more grueling. 

So this is for those who feel like they may not have an innate passion. I want to say that I don’t think it has to be innate. I think if you put in the time and effort, passion can be something you cultivate. And if what you want to pour time and energy changes down the line, so be it. No one said passions have to be forever. So go and just live your life, and let me know what you end up committing to for now :)