And Now Today's Episode of "Lost"

you know when you don't mean to write a novel and you write a novel? well.

There's this page called "Humans of New York" on tumblr and facebook (and possibly other places, i dunno, but these two are definitely a work of art, 20/10) and there's this particular post where this one lady on the streets of New York talks about passion and how she has done well, but has never found her passion. Now in the comments, there's this one particular person who speaks their piece on this case of feeling lost and not knowing where or how to find a path in life in general.

The future is terrifying. The unknown is terrifying. Not knowing where you want to go while you step onto this roller coaster that, from your perspective, is headed straight into a cloud of fog with millions of different paths with potential other cars that could collide straight into you just turns this whole unknown thing into a whole new bag of nope. Feelings of being lost and not knowing which path to head towards in the first place always has the potential of sending you either a.) on the wrong path or worse, b.) keep you from going anywhere at all.

People often tell you to "just follow your passions and dreams" and to "just go with your gut" when it comes to your future while simultaneously subtly telling you that you can only ever have one passion to chase and that if your passion doesn't make an impact on the world on a substantial scale or isn't practical, your passions aren't worth chasing and there's always those feelings of "if I don't make my dream job, I've failed".

Armand Michael says about passion in the sea of comments,

 "Everyone talks about their “passion” as if it’s some pre-determined thing that’s somewhere out there waiting for you.

I don’t believe there are careers or hobbies you were meant to have any more than there are people you were “destined” to be with. I’ve been in enough relationships to understand that, yes, you can fit really well with someone, that fate can appear to have aligned perfectly for your getting together, but the success of the relationship is still dependent on your own decisions and how hard you’re willing to work for it. The same is true about your “passion”.

 I study neuroscience; I want to go into research. I could have just as easily (if not more easily) become a writer, simply because I absolutely love writing. In college, I often enjoyed my writing classes more than my science classes. In fact, if money wasn’t an issue, I might have chosen to become a writer instead

Does that mean I’m not following my passion by choosing a career in science over writing? No. Because I could never give up science. I could never give up my curiosity and desire to learn about the world, and the opportunity to actually be on the forefront of that discovery.

Your passion is what you put your energy into. It’s what you decide, consciously or not (but sometimes it has to be consciously!), to care about, to strive towards, to give your life to. It is a reflection of you and not of whatever the actual subject of your interest is. It can change.

People forget that “passion” doesn’t describe the object of your devotion; it describes the energy and emotion you invest in that object. People who jump from career to career, actively searching for something they can enjoy doing, can very well be exhibiting just as much passion as someone who’s stayed in the same career all their lives and loved every day of it."

Here's the deal about passions and goals: they are always evolving. There will be obstacles. You will have to work hard for it. You are going to feel some days that there are others better at your craft. You are going to be just fine.

As terrifying as it is to start out working in a local restaurant as a dish washer, chase a doctorate degree, study english, create, go into...I dunno, botany maybe, letting fear hold you back from that or letting fear hold you back from starting to find where you want to go in the first place will just keep you from experiencing so many incredible things, even if you do fail. And you will. Don't let it get to your head that you can only have one passion either; Mae Jemison was both a dancer and an astronaut and even has done acting as well as just being an incredible woman in general. As for not knowing where to go, thankfully the universe is generous with second chances when you start down paths that aren't the best for you.

The future is terrifying. and wonderful. and it's such an incredible privilege to have the opportunity to utilize that unknown into discovering and shaping a world you want to create for yourself.

you've got this.

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