"Do What You Love"

[Levusti]

So I dunno if I am just ungrateful or I am being reasonable.

But lately, now that I have graduated and have found good work with good paying money, I should be satisfied, right?

But I feel like I have an inexplicable, elusive "hole" in myself, specifically in my belly, but it's not hunger cause I just ate so...

But everytime I feel the hole, it always is preceded by the question "How come you didn't pursue your passion?"

And then people ask me what I want to do, and i always respond with, "What do you think I should do?"

After which everyone says "Do what makes you happy."

And I always feel this guilt and regret roller coaster where I think, "Maybe I should..." and then quickly followed by "I should not complain. I've lived a comfortable life with a great paying job, my priorities in order, and my friends and family by my side."

I dunno. I feel like a spoiled, ungrateful brat saying "I don't like what I am doing." when there are literally millions of people who can only wish to be where I am now.

I'm still a kid in my own eyes, still SUPER naive and immature in a world where everyone grows up faster than they want to.

So just wanting to I guess vent and have people justify some of my feelings right now. But I want you to be honest. I don't want sugar coated, fluffy empathetic words said at me if that's not what you feel.

So! Talk to me, guise.

 

[Hope]

I totally know where you're coming from. I, however, am on the other side of it. I have had over 17 different types of jobs. I've never been fired or laid off. I've left voluntarily to pursue what I believed to be my passion. After 10 years in the working world I have boiled it down to the fact that I need to work for myself. Therefore, I'm going back to school.

I was offered a very well paying job as a buyer for a large corporation. I turned it down because the satisfaction from that job would only be temporary. I'm not exactly thrilled about going back to school, but life is too short not to be doing something you love.

In the end money doesn't matter. Stature doesn't matter. What matters is happiness. Not the unsustainable satisfaction from wealth, but the lasting satisfaction from knowing that you are doing what you are put here on this earth to do.

I don't want to be a cliche by saying "just be happy. Do what makes you happy." But really.... life really is too short to waste it being complacent or indifferent.

And I don't think you're acting spoiled or entitled in the slightest. Many go through the same struggles. I applaud you for digging deep and doing some soul searching. Many are too afraid to do that.

 

[Ochalla]

There's doing what makes you happy, and then there's always believing the grass is always greener on the other side. How do you know if you're in a rut, or if your rut is pursuing an idealistic happiness you'll never achieve? It's not easy, but life never is, but do you pick up hobbies every six months? You might be the type that is never quite satisfied and it's better to put down roots in something mundane and take out your insatiable thirst for the next best thing in other manners. Now if you're the type of person that has a handful of restaurant you enjoy and you get the same thing often because damn it you like it, then maybe if you're unhappy it is time to get out of the rut before life taste of cardboard.

"OMG Ocha those are both me though!" Relax! As you said, you're young! However it's best to understand who you are in a very fundamental way before trying to change your life on a more surface but still important level. I've known people that became career students and left perfectly good jobs over and over again because it wasn't the right fit and were never happy no matter what career they chose. I've known other people that stayed in the same job until it nearly killed them and when they finally broke loose wish they had made the change much earlier in life. Everyone is different, but be thankful you have a chance to choose, not everyone has such opportunities.

 

[Kestrel]

Do what you love, heh, if only it were that easy.

My passion is travel. Waking up in the morning, with no idea what I want to do and where I'm gonna go that day, and just go anywhere I feel like that very moment. This freedom makes me feel... Well, very free. Light. In touch with myself and my emotions. There's nothing quite like it. I could keep this up for years, roam the world to wherever I would please, thinking only of the present.

The problems with this passion are obvious. First, money. travel costs money. The second is time. Time that is also very well served learning a trade to ensure I have the money to travel and the skills to earn money without being locked into a shitty job after 20 years of globe-trotting. Much like I'd love to play the no-time-like-the-present backpacking hippie, I have to admit I'm not that fearless. Plus, chances are my desires will change over the years. Maybe I want to start a family some day. They say that every ten years you look back at yourself you can't help but think what a fool you were back then. I try to make not too much of an idiot out of myself. I'm learning a trade, but also grab opportunities to follow my passion. For example, I'm on an internship in China. Of all places. I make extra hours in advance so I can take a few days off to explore this country, and though it consists of short and busy bursts, I'd be damned if I didn't admit it's fucking glorious. However, to be happy in both the present and the future, I have to balance the two. At it's heart, that is the key to happiness. Balance.

I won't pretend I have all the answers, I'd be a hypocrite if I told you to settle easily, and I'm not arrogant enough to think I won't laugh at myself in ten years time, but what I do know is that I won't regret this choice I made. In relation to you, you must first know what you want, then determine how much you're willing to sacrifice, then make a balance and prepare to overcome the inevitable obstacles and in the end accept the choices you made. There's honestly nothing else I can give you.

 

[White]

"Do what you love" = do what makes you feel good.
Of course excluding what harms other living creatures.


What is something you would like to do in your life?