Passion Hunt, Haunted
You hear this advice from the time you are a young child, right when you are beginning to develop some common sense: “Find your passion.” But anyway!! They,
don’t tell you how to find one.
After a significant amount of time had passed, I found myself imparting some of my so-called wisdom advice, to one of the younger people when I suddenly had an insight. I have no idea what was going through the head of the listener, but as the speaker at the moment, the impact of my words was significantly greater on me. I had to personally go through each and every step of the processing of my own words. As I spoke, it was an exciting moment; however, as you probably already know, looking back on things makes them more meaningful. In order to make an objective assessment of something, you must have an open mind. It seems as though I’m bragging about myself here. In any case, let’s keep going.
Wisdom words can be a double-edged sword when you don’t implement the words themselves.
It had been a week or two since I had completed my pilgrimage(actually trek) to the holy site of Gosaikunda, which is located in Nepal, and I was relaxing with a cup of tea at a local cafe. Due to the fact that it is one of my regular hangouts, I have become acquainted with a great number of people there. I met this bhai (little brother; in Nepal, every young person is called bhai) who, like us, had recently traveled to Gosaikunda, and we shared our experience being there. It was just a casual conversation, nothing particularly interesting, right? You’ll need to read more of the write-up to piece together what happened next in the plot.
After a month had passed, I was scrolling through Facebook when I came across the same bhai. At that time, he was in the far western part of Nepal, in the city of Surkhet. I was like, “Woah, this guy is a traveler too;” I had traveled quite a bit myself, and the sight of someone else traveling would always uplift my spirit. Fast forward two weeks, we ran into each other at the same cafe, and from there, the conversation began. I started by asking him a basic question about the trip, and from there everything unfolded.
So? How do you manage money to do the traveling?
And all he said was, “My parents provide for me financially.”
I was completely dumbfounded and inquired of him once more, “How old are you?”
He uttered the number “twenty-six.”
The neurons in my brain started firing with a tremendous amount of horsepower as a result of the many things that went through my head all at once. In front of me is a young man of twenty-six who is currently traveling the country thanks to the financial support of his parents. Instantaneously, a chain of thoughts began to form in my head, and I immediately shared them with him.
I don’t know what you’re thinking, bro, but I can see a major problem on the horizon for you in the not too distant future, and it’s as clear as the light of day.
He got psyched, for he was aware of the fact that I don’t talk unnecessarily and out of context. He couldn’t comprehend what my saying was leading towards for one can only see the path one walks, not beyond. In order to catch a glimpse of what lies beyond, you must learn from the experience of those who have walked the path before you, but at some point in the future, you will need to walk the path on your own.
With a tint of worry, he asked me to elaborate as he was unable to make sense of the words and I simply told him,
“You are in the prime of your life, in your mid-twenties, but you are financially dependent on your parents, you don’t work, and you haven’t accumulated any skills. You might only have a few friends, but as you get older, those friends will become busier with their own lives. When you reach your thirties, you will find that you have fewer friends, but because you lack any skills, you will be at a loss as to how to spend the time that is left over. When you reach that point in your life, you will inevitably go through the midlife crisis.”
It felt like a very daunting thing for him and he asked me again a grand question, the answer to which was, I don’t know how liberating it was for him but it had quite a bit of impact on me. Have I not previously discussed with you the double-edged nature of the sword?
What am I supposed to do, dai(big brother)? I don’t know what my passion is.
A genuine question, there are countless lives floating around the ether not knowing the purpose of what really is to be done. It was intriguing but haunting too, you want to learn swimming and someone pushes you into the river; now you’ll understand what suffocation really means if you make it through, that is. All I told him was,
Passion is not something that would come up with a snap of a finger. There is a whole process to discovering it.
When one puts their faith in a variety of endeavors, some of them are successful while the vast majority of them are miserable failures. Those who are successful would proceed up to the point where they reach the point of saturation. After reaching their limit, they become dissatisfied and decide to try something new. The pattern repeats itself.
Also, when one realizes that a miserable failure is not the end of the world, one put themselves on the path of continuous trials. This is true even if the failure was catastrophic. We have heard many depressing accounts of how everything in someone’s life came crashing down, but for the time being, let’s not talk about that; let’s talk about being adamant.
The whole process of trials continues for years and years, it might hit someone early; but for many, it takes a couple of decades or even more.
After two to three decades (or more), one would sit down with a cup of tea; just like I was having, they would do the thinking about what things they have tried so far and when they felt the most alive.
The search would uncover the fact that there was indeed one aspect of it that I appreciated more than the others. Even though I didn’t make much money doing that particular work, the thing that stood out to me was that the value of accomplishment was greater than the value of money itself.
That, my brother, is the PASSION, and once you discover it, you must proceed with it until the very end of life.
It is only a matter of time; throughout your life, you will attempt many different things; one after the other, some will bring you good news, while others will bring you bad news; however, you will continue to move forward and try new things.
For those who try, there is a chance; but for those who don’t try, there is no chance.
It is quite upsetting to get the fact straight to your face, as you may be expecting a bit of flexibility and some acceptable room for error, but this is life. It’s possible that there are some things within your control, but the vast majority of things are so uncertain that you can’t possibly predict what will happen.
The one and only thing that you can do is, give it a try. Every trial increases your odds to get closer to your PASSION.
It must have been challenging for the younger brother to be confronted by such information. As for me, I was in awe as the words continued to flow from my mouth. He thanked me for the words and the revelation he had found for the time being, and then he left to figure out what he was going to do about it.
As for me, as much as the words meant for the brother, it keeps haunting me till this day. He might find his passion in due time but what about me?
For starters, there are a few things that I need to try for myself; one of them is writing, which is something that I am currently doing, but even so, there are an infinite number of other things that I want to try. Even though this life might not be enough to test each and every one of them, I’m going to give a few different things a shot anyway.
Damage had been done, but not in a destructive way; rather, in a constructive way, by the double-edged sword.
I hope that each and every one of you will continue to try new things for yourselves as well, because PASSION HUNTING is, in fact, a game; the important thing is to make sure that you do not become HAUNTED by it in the process. Continue to push forward and give it your best shot, keeping in mind that this is a difficult process but a worthwhile one.
Cheers to all you lively souls.
FOOTNOTE
And if you want to read more of my random thoughts you can check:
Supplementary Vibes, or?
Attention Span
Independent Writer
Perspectives 360⁰
Awaiting For A Savior
If want to know me more, do check out all my writing which can be found here:
Everything I had ever written on medium.com
