I should be continuing my thesis by now but something has called me into writing this post. Some questions just easily pop out of my mind and some I earn through talking to other people (whether or not I actually like talking to people with great insights and minds).

When it comes to wondering about things (or perhaps even zoning out), sometimes I question what kind of thing is considered a 'passion'? Some people might think a passion is something related to your hobby, or something that gives you an essential of life. Well, I must say I don't disagree with them, but what exactly is a 'passion'?

Sometimes I look at others and think that what they enjoy doing must have been their passion.

I was raised by parents who are both musicians and doing things related to music and composing. Everything that evolves around them is purely music. I would say their passion is music. But then a lot of people would straightly point at me and be like, "you're their daughter. Your passion must have been the same with theirs," which I think is a bit ignorant.

Or some people would see me and wonder what my 'real passion' is because they see me not having a particular fondness over something so specific.

Why bother making a passion as something specific if one can easily enjoy doing whatever they like?

To me, it's merely a game of words; you see something that interests you more than other things in this world, and you try to find the right word to call what it is: passion.

I'm not writing this to demonstrate a new movement of "allowing something that is not even okay to be allowed" as in, allowing people "not to have a passion at all" because really, I think the word 'passion' should be straightened up here (and people should know it too).

The word passion in our modern world has changed into something to eliminate others into feeling "exclusive". Some people claiming they have a passion would feel so special about themselves for having a thing or two that they happen to be more interested in than with other things in life and I think it's great. People can finally find something that makes them feel good about themselves, something that makes them feel special and unique; a personality, a name, something to distinguish their presence in the society.

But would such definition and the credits it gives to people having something called as a passion define others who claim for not having a passion as "someone who doesn't have a passion"?

So what exactly is a passion?

Growing up, we were taught to "follow our dreams" or "find our passion" or have something that we enjoy doing to the point we forgot the essence of doing them.

We were taught to focus more on defining a subject or two that we would like to follow or set as a cornerstone in living our lives a.k.a what we want to be or do in life. We prepared and tried so hard to find the object without knowing the objective.

So you've found what you want to be or do in life. Now what?

Perhaps we forgot to ask why on the first place we wanted to be or do those things in life.

You see, some people might dodge my writing on this post and be like, "passion is not about the object one wants to be or do in life but rather the enjoyment of being or doing it". Well, kudos to you for not seeing a passion as the object but the essence of it.

Now, if we've coned down the definition of passion itself, would a person with no particular fondness over something so specific in life be considered as someone who has a passion?

You see yourself as someone who enjoys lots of things and topics in life with the same amount of interests, be it reading, literature, politics, singing, playing music instruments, drawing, art, culture, to collecting stones from different streets you've walked in your town.

So what's your 'actual' passion?

I believe the question itself shouldn't bother anyone being asked into answering it.

You could be enjoying all your activities and talking about various topics and still calling it a passion. People shouldn't necessarily feel the need to choose a specific thing and set it up as their passion. Passion is not something that defines who you are as a person. Passion is not some kind of things that 'distinguish' anyone from the society. You can still 'not having a passion' (for God knows what the modern society defines the word passion is) and live life to the fullest. 

So why bother forcing yourself into setting a topic or a thing as your 'passion' if you are sure you can survive, be happy and just literally enjoy all the things the life can offer to you to the fullest?

It's okay to have a lot of different things and topics you are interested in and 'not settling down to specific topics or things that the society would define as passion'.

Surviving in the era of social media turns people into wanting to 'show off' of what they are capable of doing (or being) because it's a digital world, a cyberspace and people want to look their best for strangers to see. Competitions between others profiles on social media turns people into wanting to have an 'identity' to distinguish them from the society and some of them came up by choosing a topic, maybe a profession, or something they like as a passion.

I'm not saying we shouldn't share what we are fond of on the internet and just stay silent and be apathetic. I'm saying that knowing others claim to have a passion in life should never bother us into forcefully choosing something to define who we are.

We are who we are and we're the one who decide how we want to live our lives.

Some people might look like they have something as a passion, or making them feel dedicated or important but that's just it. That's how they want to be seen by strangers on the internet and that shouldn't be something we 'admire' or be attracted too damn much and even less, making it as a competition towards others.

You can go to your 9-5 job every single day like a regular office employee and still be liking your life and even enjoying what you are doing as a 'boring' office worker. That is a passion.

You can practice learning new things and still calling it a passion because you enjoy finding out new things to explore in life.

You can have many random activities even if it's not frequently done and call it a passion because you don't feel like you've failed but instead, entertained. 

You can meet strangers and discuss various topics in life and call it a passion because it helps you to exchange insights with lots of different perspectives.

You can do everyday routines which some would call as 'too plain' or even 'no actual life at all' and still calling it a passion because you enjoy your routines.

Many things in life we do and enjoy and yet we still refuse to call them as a passion because we tend to think that a passion is something that has to define specifically, and even to distinguish who we are from the society. We are afraid of being a so-called "mediocre" if we can't have those things when really having those things doesn't mean someone is enjoying their lives as much as we are.

Let others have their own stage in their own world while we're enjoying what we like to do or be (or even what we would like to try in the future). Let's just be zen and focus on ourselves because being who we are and what we would like to do, be, or achieve to enjoy life to the fullest is the greatest thing anyone could ever done for themselves.

-Kezia