Passion or Career?

We have always been lead to believe that the perfect job is doing what you love and getting paid for it. Kids growing with a passion for music or sports dreamed of becoming a pop star or an athlete; get paid to do what you love, right?

Growing up my passion was art. I knew since age five that I would grow up to be a cartoonist, work for Disney and become a millionaire. There was never any doubt in my mind. I even have my first drawing saved! Once I got to high school and realized that my school had a building dedicated to fine arts I knew I was on the right track and meeting other students who shared my passion further fueled my desire. I won art competitions, had a nationally recognized portfolio and earned a scholarship to the largest art school in the country. I was on top of the world!

But something happened once I got to college. I remember having two art classes that changed the way I looked at art; Life Drawing and Intro to Animation. These were intense five to six hour long classes of non-stop drawing. Up until college I absolutely loved drawing; I loved it so much I would skip classes in high school and head to the art studio. But college art, a whole new ball game. I have never hated drawing more than when I was in college. It wasn't fun anymore; I lost the zest that I'd had since pre-school. Second thoughts about making art a career had started to settle in. I ended up dropping out of that school, took up graphic design at another school and dropped out of that, too. A career in art was killing that drive I'd always had, killing my motivation!

What does this all mean to you? That all depends. I am not saying you should never make a career of your passion, but you do need to put it through a reality check. What you love may not make the greatest job in the world; it may even be tough making ends meet. This is perfectly okay and shouldn't necessarily discourage you from pursuing it as a career. But you need to assess yourself and your goals and come to a conclusion as to what means more. On one hand you may love what your doing but struggle trying to support yourself with it; but you're happy. On the other, you can opt for a stable career, however, may not be totally passionate about it. What means more to you? One is not necessarily better than the other so no answer is the wrong answer. It all depends on what makes you comfortable, what you can live with. So pick one and go with it full steam ahead. If it doesn't work out for you then you'll always have that other option to fall back on. And, throughout this whole experience you'll definitely learn something new about yourself.

I love what I do now and I have no regrets. If I had known then what I knew now would I do things differently? Absolutely not. Life is all about experiences; great ones and horrible ones. That's what builds character and makes you a great person. What will you do?