Why I didn’t Pursue a Career in my Passion.
Had an interesting conversation with someone about if your passion should be your career. The conversation reminded me of myself a couple of years ago, because I was convinced I was going to work in the sustainability field, since it was the only topic that excited me. Growing up people continuously deterred me from the idea because the annual salary for careers in sustainability are historically on the lower end. Instead, I was encouraged to integrate sustainability as my hobby. At that time it didn’t seem logical to me to work towards a career I wasn’t passionate about, so of course I didn’t listen to all the noise and continued to pursue a degree in Environmental Science.
Halfway through college I realized I didn’t want to pursue a career in sustainability that dealt with fixing problems we as humans were creating. I wanted to be part of the prevention team; the first line of defense. I didn’t want to be a scientist who worked at a water sanitation plant checking and cleaning pollutants in our water from improper consumer dispossal. I wanted to educate regular people like you and I about being sustainable to prevent the pollution in the first place. Preventing the problem from occurring sounded more satisfying than cleaning up the aftermath.
Since jobs in environmental education were not common I turned it into my passion, began studying business in college, and ended up seperating my career from my interests. Naturally it will be a hard for many of us to stop pursuing a career in our passion, but there are some huge upsides in doing this. First and foremost, by seperating your passion from your career, your passions can flurish and be long lasting. For many of us, when we continuously do something we like we lose the excitement for it over time. Through my internships in college with various environmental organizations I became uninterested due to the constant state of saturation I was exposed to. Fast forward six years and my interest in living a sustainable life has been unshakeable. In my free time I’m constantly longing to learn more about living a low impact life while educating others on how they can do the same.
Let’s address the question we are all thinking. Am I happy with my decision? Yes. I happen to feel fulfilled with my current job, and I’m able to explore the depths of sustainable and simple living at the pace that I choose. Being able to curate a space to express myself and dive into my passions has been such an interesting journey, and I encourage anyone contemplating about pursuing a career in their passion to start by gaining clarity on what they really value and how integrated you want your interest to be with your career. For those of us who don’t have or are searching for our passion take a leap and dip your toes into a variety of things until you find what’s best for you. You haven’t failed just because you decided to move on from something. You are simply gaining self-awareness and getting closer to what you really want.
