‘This I Believe'

I believe that one's greatest contribution to the world is the pursuit of one's own passions.

The word "passion" can be defined as "a strong liking or enthusiasm for a subject or activity." I believe that every one of us has a specific passion in life, whether it be for music, sports, literature or socializing. These sorts of activities or subjects always seem to spark within us a strong internal affinity.

Personally, I would say that being creative and dedicating precious time to a custom piece of art is, in fact, my passion. It is arguably what I enjoy doing the most and what I continue to get the most reward out of. Art is a beautiful medium through which I can express myself, and let my imagination guide the pencil, paintbrush or whatever it may be. It is a great passion of mine, and something I have come to realize I can utilize to help contribute to the world. So now I pose the question: Why not offer the world what you are best at?

Nowadays, the emphasis on securing a job with a healthy salary is steadily growing. Indeed, it is to a person's advantage to try and tackle the workload that years of schooling offers in order for someone to get a job in their field of study and gain a firm financial foothold.

However, it sometimes might take someone longer than he or she expected to realize that his or her passions in life are totally absent in the workplace. Certainly, what's the fun or use in getting paid a heavy income but disliking one's job? It is my assumption that many people in America today, and I'm sure around the world as well, would share the common advice to follow your passions in life, study what you find a genuine interest in and go on to enjoy your daily vocation despite the amount of pay. The key here is to enjoy what one does day in and day out. The best way to contribute one's talents and abilities to the world is to hone and develop them, and present them to the world in the most customary way possible. The melting pot of original ideas that the world consists of is the result of people contributing what they yield when their passions are put to work.

When one pursues his or her own passions, one utilizes his or her own God-given gifts and talents. The choice of whether to aggressively pursue our passions or not is indeed a scary one, especially if we have no idea of what the future holds. All I know is that what we as human beings are passionate about is what we were meant to do; it is what we were meant to foster through the talents we were naturally given. If the world has our best in store, then I know it has a much brighter future.