Finding your passion

I have been doing a lot of thinking about finding and living your life's passion because I have had a drastic change in my life recently due to leaving graduate school. The details are not important, but what is important is that I had not wanted to be in graduate school for the last couple of years and had great difficulty getting through. I realized 1.5 years ago that I didn't want this degree, and I wish I had stopped studying for it back then. But, I am trying to live a life with no regrets because regret is a waste of time and energy that you could be focusing on something else.

I have been following my passion for art and writing. I am now actually selling some of my art (a small stream of income at the moment) and I have a part-time job writing and doing research for a blog. I am so happy about it, and I feel so relieved to finally be doing what I really want to do. I didn't know for sure that this was what I wanted until there was no possibility of me returning to graduate school this next year - I guess I was in denial.

I think when people hear you want to be an artist or a writer their usual response is "those are hard fields to break into," or they tell you that those are not very practical occupations. Some people give up without even trying like I did. But what I did was abandon something I had a passion for because I believed it could never happen, and others told me it could never happen. It is hard to put into words how wonderful it feels to finally spread my wings and with a smile on my face start my next project - this work is actually fun! It is so fun... should I call it work? Yes!

Consider this: one of Joseph Campbell's most famous quotes was "Follow your bliss." Writer Ami McKay says that she holds this quote dear to her heart everyday because it reminds her "that living life to its fullest potential is nothing to put off for the sake of society's approval, or for 'someday.' Someday is not a day of the week."