The question, “What do you want to become when you grow up?” was often followed by either a doctor or an engineer as the answer. That’s the story of us 90’s kids. And then we grew up. We explored ourselves. We dug up our hidden talents and started dreaming of becoming something different.
It sounds appealing. It’s attractive. You want to do that. You want to quit your job and show the world a middle finger and follow your passion. These three words are so bright and blinding that one forgets to think beyond that.Â
Did the person who advised you to follow your passion or your dream tell you the after-story? No? Did you ask them questions regarding their advise? Did you ask them if they followed their own advise? Did you ask them if they were successful when they did?
No?
Because, “Follow your passion” creates a hunky-dory image in our minds. Movies and success stories start revolving in our heads. Aamir Khan from Three Idiots will say motivating things and trust me, we feel like he is advising just us. He really wants us to follow our passion.
No one tells you what happens after that.
The journey of following your heart is a tough one. Because the task of finding out what you are passionate about is a humongous one in itself. Most of us do not have a clue about our passion. And, let’s not confuse passion with hobby. One might LIKE dancing or singing or painting, it doesn’t necessarily mean one is passionate about it.
No one tells us how difficult it is to embark on this journey. Where does one start from? How does one know what to do and what not to? We know it’s a risky journey but did we know it was going to be so risky that we might go astray?
But somehow, we pick the least risky path and set off on it to reach the destination of our dreams. The path is a rocky one which no one really told us about. No one told us how much hard work and toil it requires. But, nothing can be achieved without hard work, and perseverance is inevitable.
But did anyone tell us that we’ll have to constantly keep proving ourselves so as to remain on the road we have taken? We fail once and the world laughs at us. We fall once and we are mocked. We falter and we turn into an object of ridicule.Â
But we don’t give up. Because, we knew it would be difficult. What we didn’t know was that our own people start doubting us. Our own near and dear ones start judging us. They start questioning our judgement and decision.
And the one thing they never told us was that we start doubting ourselves.
We’ll stay up nights worried to death if we took the right decision the day we chose to follow our hearts. We cry ourselves to sleep. We dread the mornings when we have to will ourselves to get up and struggle again to survive. We are scared if we can make it through the day. We doubt if we are any good. But, we make it. Don’t we?
It’s important to care about what we are doing. It’s important to be enthusiastic. We are required to nurture our passion like our own baby. But the world did not tell us this.
Did anyone tell us that? No. No one told us that we have to make others care about our passion. No one told us that we need other people, to be successful in our journey. We need people to give a damn about our work.Â
It’s useless to sing when there’s no one to hear. It’s pointless to write when there’s no one to read. It’s futile to dance when there’s no one to appreciate. The game you programmed goes in vain when no one wants to play. It’s fruitless to paint when there’s no one to cherish its beauty. So you see? We were never told about this.
No one comes out boldly to tell us on our faces that we are not good enough for our passion. Because it’s necessary for us to be good. Hell, we are required to be better than good. We have to stand out. We have to have a unique selling point. Yes, no one told us that we’ll have to market ourselves. We have to be sell-able. We have to be worthy of people’s demands. More than that, we’ll have to keep people in mind while following our dreams. But no one told us that.
The world never told us that we’d fail. When they asked us to follow our passion, no one prepared us to fail. Because, no one talks about failing. We cannot fathom the fact that our passion can be fruitless too. No one told us that we’ll end up depressed and in anguish. No one told us that life will seem worthless and pointless.
And the one thing that they should’ve definitely told is?
Alone and unassisted. It’ll be just our journey. And, solely ours. We will not have anyone to share our excitement, our sorrows, our highs and our lows. You know why? Because, it’s our dream. And not another soul on Earth will be able to understand how much it means. No one will get how important that first customer was.
No one will understand the joy the writer will receive when a reader will go through the whole of his/her piece. No one will be able to comprehend the pain the painter will feel when his painting lies in the corner with no one to appreciate it.
We travel solo in this journey. The success is ours to enjoy and the failure is our to bear. We pick ourselves when we fall and we dance for ourselves when we rise. This is just our journey.
But no one told us about this, right?