Comments on: Passions: How to Be Happy Despite/Because of Them?

By: xgravity23

xgravity23 — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:48:28 +0000

@ww: Thanks for your kind words and the confirmation. It means a lot, coming from you. You are so wise, beyond your years.

By: xgravity23

xgravity23 — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:40:53 +0000

@lifestudent: *sigh* I hate that too. But I think it’s a mark of their immaturity, an immaturity that unfortunately some people never grow out of.

By: ww

ww — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 05:27:39 +0000

How blessed you are to have the ability to do so many things. I think life can be dissatisfying for people like that sometimes because you can’t do everything at once; you have to choose which talents to develop and which to leave untapped (at least for a while). I think you have the right perspective by considering what will be the best for you and your family. Hopefully later on you will find the opportunity to do some of the things you’ve left by the wayside for now!

By: lifestudent

lifestudent — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:53:29 +0000

I love how college students always find the ability to find others to blame for their weaknesses and failures. They didnt do their homework because the boss kept them late, failed an exam because of family problems at home … and I especially love when they blame ME. That the teacher is at fault somehow for their low performance :)

Ah, students.

By: xgravity23

xgravity23 — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:24:31 +0000

@Sarah Jo: Ha ha, love the pun. :) I do think you would be good at athletic training/dietetics, and I think I’ve benefited from that passion of yours (and hope to again in the near future). I would love for you to write a follow-up post!

By: xgravity23

xgravity23 — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:17:50 +0000

@Lorraine: I’m glad you chose MSU! And that is quite surprising that Uni of Neb has a Czech minor! Maybe you can do an online course or something?

You are very right: I need to be happy with maintaining these passions in my free time. And I guess the point isn’t to satisfy our cravings for them, but to deepen them and mature them, right? They are what makes work worth it?

P.S. I’m so glad you wrote that post!

By: Sarah Jo

Sarah Jo — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:26:12 +0000

Linden, I had no idea you were accepted to UMKC either! That’s crazy! I totally feel your pain in having so many passions that yearn to be pursued. For me, it was a career in athletic training/dietetics vs. a career in writing. I know I made the “write” choice (so, so, so sorry about that pun), but some days I can’t help but wonder…

Maybe I’ll craft a follow-up blog post on this…

By: Lorraine

Lorraine — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:21:25 +0000

Wow, Linden: I never knew you got accepted to UMKC’s prog! That’s a big deal! I actually had a similar struggle when I was choosing a college, only my other option was the University of Nebraska where I could do German and actually minor in Czech (Czech! usually schools just have a “slavic studies” minor that lumps it in with everything else).

Anyways, I think in this post, you’ve perfectly expanded on and summed up my love-hate relationship with my various passions. And then, to complicate things even more, you can break each passion down into smaller fragments. For example, in sticking with Graphic Design as my career, should I pursue designing bookcovers or branding (logos, etc.)? Working with the music industry or the movie industry? Or should I start my own wedding invitation/stationary business? When reading up on geology, should I choose to study mineralogy or volcanism? etc. etc.

But I figure I can have my cake and eat it too with what I choose to do in my “freetime”. It may never be enough to satisfy my craving for these other topics, but then I guess I don’t really want to. And who knows where my career will lead me… Right now, my dream job is to be Robert Osborne’s assistant on Turner Classic Movies.