EDITORIAL: To graduates, don’t forget your passions in ‘real world’
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, June 13, 2017
It’s that time again: Graduation season. Time for social media feeds to be filled with senior portraits, champagne bottles and #classof2017 posts and minds to wonder, and worry, about what could be waiting beyond the comfortable environments of high school or college.
As a recent or soon-to-be graduate, you’ve probably heard it all by now. All of the wise words from family members, friends, parents of friends, employers and the people you run into on the street or at the grocery store that know you just well enough to know you’re moving on to “the real world,” as many like to call it.
“If I would have known one thing when I was your age…” That’s usually how it starts before the well-wisher launches into a barrage of advice about taking risks, but not too many; living your life, but working hard; and remembering that every mistake is an opportunity to learn.
Life is really all about balance — finding balance between work and the rest of your life, spending money and saving money, being serious and knowing when to relax and be funny and, most importantly, remembering to balance that one thing that has always made you happy with the rest of your responsibilities.
We all have something — that one hobby that we dreamed of turning into a profession when we were little and finally got the chance to pursue. For many, it’s sports, the ones you committed to in middle school and high school only to realize you didn’t have the time or talent to do professionally, yet continued to participate in just for fun. For others, it’s an art: dance, painting, music. Spending hours in a studio with aching legs, tired brains or frustration with an inability to get that one detail right.
By the time graduation from high school or college rolls around, the passion to continue that hobby that made you happy is there, probably stronger than ever because the time to do it is missing and has been overtaken by other responsibilities. Don’t let it go. Find a way to keep it in your life.
If you’re lucky, you’ll find a job that incorporates your passion with the ability and necessity to make money. For others, a new passion may come about. For most, their jobs will occupy most of their days, but allow them to fund that activity that made them so happy. Whatever it takes and regardless of what some say, hold on to that child-like quality of believing you can do what you love, no matter how unrealistic. The secret is in life’s balance.
