Have you ever been stuck between deciding what you like and what actually works? What do you really want to do and what actually fits you?

Well, I have. My friends have And it was not a good feeling...

Passion

In several definitions offered by World's Dictionaries, the word "passion" has always been linked to the word "emotion."

It gives a description of being devoted to doing something, being excited and enthusiastic about doing something that distractions are rarely considered. It has been so tied down to love that sometimes we confuse it for hobbies.

Whereas hobbies are only done in your spare time, passion is when your schedule is full but you still make time because you enjoy doing that thing. For instance, you talk with someone because you have time to pass. That might be a hobby, but when you make time to talk with that person, that is a passion. Passion does not wait, it makes time.

It provides attention. If my passion is loving you, you do need to ask me for it. I'll love you in accordance with my will. There is no force to be employed because I love the feeling of constantly loving you.

Then there's

Practicality

If passion has been linked to emotion, Practicality is linked with proven action. The reliability and credibility of this thing is without question. Hence, it was called "practical" because you can trust it to be useful on a daily basis. Such that when a career is practical, it will pay your bills and feed you.

When an action is practical, you do not need to relearn it because you always do the same thing because it's practical. When you're playing safe, betting on a practical action is the most preferable.

Now why am I writing this one?

Well, I happen to see dates of admission results coming on the home page of social media groups. And then I realized that, yes, we were like this last year, and now we're seeing new batches doing the same thing we did, applying to colleges, sometimes for clout, sometimes for being out of options, and sometimes for serious reasons.

We can see students with varied perspectives on college-excited freshies and all. And I also remembered how we struggled to choose between your dream campus or your dream course. Or maybe your dream course and the practical one.

I have a friend. We’re actually close. You know, we’re a squad that basically lives in the same village but gets to see others rarely. Some best friends from different provinces get to travel every two days just to hang out, but our group takes a month just to go out and eat with the exaggerated curfew and inability to take some proof that we actually have fun as friends.

So last year, she was really struggling with whether to pursue a pre-med degree or an architecture degree. She said she likes both because she’s always seen herself as a doctor. She wore those robes as a known psychologist because she likes the human mind, but she feared that she would not pass the pre-med exam given.

She also likes drawing, even though she said many times that she’s not good at it. However, she’s very good at designing house interiors. Yet she feared that she’d be compared to her cousin when she pursued architecture because her cousin shares the same passion for art and was quite good at it.

The catch is, her mom doesn’t want any of the two. She wants her to take computer science, as we are now in the digital era and that will be a good career. Relative to this, she passed the admission exam for computer science at one of the prestigious universities she applied to. She didn’t pass the pre-med course exam, but she can appeal.

And she can actually just go on enrolling in an Architecture course because the campus given was a private one, and some private schools during the pandemic didn’t really hold an exam. As long as you can pay the tuition they require, that will be okay.

So she asked me what I would do if I were in her shoes.

Well, basically I do not like the three, so I won’t choose any of them. But seriously, I told her that.

What I added to my answer, however, is that when you’re left with choices that you really want, the next thing you’ll consider is which of these two is the most practical. I mean, I already love both and I just need to pick one, and the edge one can show is its practicality and convenience, not on your part but on the part of those who will support you.

Because let’s be honest here: College is very financially draining and during that time you are expected to study, not work, so who else would support your education but those people around you?

You cannot support yourself, or if you can, you need to let go of some things that you’re used to getting to during the time you’re not venturing out on your own yet.

But if I had to choose between a course that is more practical and one that I enjoy, I'd go with the latter. College is hard enough. Staying on a course that you don’t want makes it even harder.

Well, there are cases where people who didn’t like what they did in the first years have learned to love it in the succeeding years, but when a person has already grown a seed of love for the course, I don’t think she’ll be able to easily forget it and live life without it easily. It’s like losing a part of your soul.

As ordinary beings, we tend to forget things that practicality doesn't offer—growth and opportunities.

Sure, Passion may not feed you or might not even make a good career, but in the first place, passion isn't for work. The money you get from doing what you love is just a bonus.

I am not saying that money isn’t important; it is because we need it. The thing is, yes, it can feed us, but until when? Until things are not practical anymore. Until humanity has already found a new practical thing,

People change. Things change.

What’s practical now can't be practical years later, and you cannot stop it from changing. You can just control you and change you into something that would let you blend with the system.

In the first place, a practical thing became practical because one individual discovered it and did it, and then another person saw this individual doing it and did it too, eventually proving that it actually works. Eventually, it would become the norm for everybody, leading to practicality.

It is through learning and doing what you love that people can bring about a good idea, which later can become the norm. Constantly doing what you always wanted to do allows you to take risks and venture on opportunities that don't promise anything—talk about being spontaneous. In the end, it leaves you with a lesson or with a chance to do better the next time.

Being passionate about something also allows you to uncover what the majority did not do because they opted to do the practical ones. Passion brings you to a place only those who go ahead of the borderline reach. It allows you to experience things that the average person doesn't enjoy.

It may not be luxuries, but it is something that is unique in your field.It is something only a few are able to know. It is not for everybody, only for those who choose to pursue their passion. Hence, although this sounds promising, it doesn't mean that it is all about the nice ones. Candy and Roses.

There might be guns and poison on the journey and you might realize that maybe choosing what the majority does is the right path. But smartwork and determination always get their reward in the end, provided that you sow the right seeds.

If you started with a dark philosophy, do not expect to have something good in the end. A bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit. And this is applicable whether you are passionate or practical—the values and morals that you do practice. Whatever your options are, if you do not use the right tools to get them, you will never get them.

Now my friend is already taking Architecture and she’s struggling a little, but she's a little happier about her decision. There’s nothing wrong with choosing what you love, as long as you’re geared up with the proper tools.

In the same way, there’s nothing wrong with choosing what’s practical as long as you have the dedication to explore and modify it.

And I believe there’s nothing wrong with leaving this article here. I hope you had a good read.

This is again, your Angel Thain. Keep safe always, you are loved.