UNITED STATES—It is a question you hear all the time and I think people think it is easy to answer, but it really is not. What is your passion in life? When I say passion I’m referring to something that just stirs the body, your mind, and your emotions in a way that nothing else in life does. It’s a loaded question and for many people it takes a moment for you to process. I believe you may initially discover your passion while in high school or on the cusp of becoming a legal adult.
At least that is when it transpired for me. For years as a kid, I was certain that I wanted to be a doctor. I was almost certain that I would be a pediatrician or a surgeon. That was something I would tell people time after time all the way up until my freshman year in high school. That is when something dramatic changed for me. This fever for cinema became a vital point of my life, note, I have always been a fan of cinema, but I started to appreciate it more as I was exposed to cinematic classics and I began to study the artwork. That intertwined with my ability to write, a spark or lightbulb went off in my head. “This is something that you are good at.”
It wasn’t just the realization that I had a knack to write, it was the creative juices and ideas that would ruminate in my head for hours, for days, for weeks, for months and for years. These ideas were not going anywhere and for me that was a vital sign that this was something that drove a lot of my behavior and my desire to want to be involved in this industry. I was passionate about becoming a filmmaker and I had no intention of allowing anyone or anything stop me for achieving that dream.
However, I did actually stop pursuing my dream. It’s like you get caught up in all the madness surrounding you and the things that should be of importance to you take a backseat to other things. I honestly cannot recall the last time I took a look at a script or actively worked on writing a script. I’ve become so caught up with work and trying to ensure things are done that any spare time I have goes to my job and not to my personal life.
I hate that feeling and it has taken me a serious amount of time to realize that I’m putting someone else over my needs first; and I should not be doing that. Why? I don’t get a phenomenal feeling about work like I use to. It’s mundane and it lacks excitement, and I’ve become just like everyone else that I know. I’m simply working for a paycheck to survive and that survival is driving me mad. Yes, I am well aware that so many people never get the opportunity to pursue their dreams or their passion, but I want to break that cycle of not going after something that means the absolute world to me.
Why? Perhaps I want to prove something to myself, but at the same time I just want to relish in having the opportunity to actually do something that means the world to me. I want to showcase that creativity that is sitting in my brain to the rest of the world and at the same time I want to inspire others that they can do the same thing. Make your passion become your passion. It may sound much easier than you think, but it all starts with dedication to your craft. If you’re serious about something you have to be willing to make it a priority against all else. Carve out the time in your schedule to ensure you are dedicating your time to the thing that provides your FLOW (a feeling where time and everything around you no longer matters because your attention is focused on something else).
I am making a pact with myself starting this week to take my spare time to dedicate it to perfecting my craft as a writer, a director and producer. I am not going to simply invest all of my free time into things that don’t give me the same satisfaction as pursuing my dream. I’ve always heard that saying there is no good in dreaming about something if you’re not willing to take the steps to make it come to fruition. You make things come to fruition by taking action. I have to take action America and so do you!
Written By Kelsey Thomas
