Responsibility vs. Passion

Reading Daniel Pink's book has made me a little more comfortable with being "right-brained." I have always seen myself as excelling in creative things, such as dancing, singing, photography, and similar things, and had dreams of going to the Olympics or dancing with the Rockettes. While I had these passions and wanted to pursue them, many of my friends had career ambitions and I would hear them talk all the time about what they wanted to be when they got older. In high school I always heard "I want to be a lawyer" or "I'm going to UGA to major in Biology so I can get into Medical School and be a doctor." I was always very discouraged because I didn't have a similar ambition or goal for my life, that the areas I excelled in were not science or math or other "left-brained" things, but rather creativity and certain "right-brained" activities. At first, I tried to push myself to become more left-brained so that I would be able to have ambitions similar to my friends' so that I could be something successful and make people proud of me.
As I began thinking, however, I realized that my right-brain was dominant for a reason, and I had been given the gifts and talents I had been given for a reason, and that I should use them. I chose to pursue the things I was passionate about and had dreams and ambitions for, even though they weren't career ambitions like my friends. That is what I have tried to do ever since, hoping that some day along my path of following my "right-brained" dreams, I will stumble across something that I love that just happens to make me money and give me a career that I will love.

Of course I've had some hesitations by following my dreams that have nothing to do with careers, but I feel as though I would regret not following them in years to come. In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink talks about the importance of Meaning, saying that "People who are grateful about specific things in their past, who dwell on the sweet triumphs instead of the bitter disappointments, tend to be more satisfied about the present" (236). In pursuing the things that I am passionate about, I am sure that I will be led in many different directions as a result. There will be times of disappointment and discouragement that lead me in the wrong direction. However, what I will learn from these times will simply be that this is not the path for me. In doing this, hopefully I will be directed onto the right path of what I eventually realize I want to do.No one wants a worker who hates their job. And perhaps if we all pursued what we love and makes us happy, the world as a whole will be a better place filled with people who love and excel at their jobs. Who can complain about that?