A famous quote once said, “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” This is a quote I foolishly believed in for so long, and so did many others. In all honesty, it is indeed a good quote and it does hold some truth to it but there’s another side of having a job you ‘love’ that people don’t get to see. For various reasons, I was always afraid of getting stuck doing something I don’t love for the rest of my life and ‘chasing money’ was never something I intended to do.
No! This wasn’t the way I wanted to live. As a result, I decided to take the road that would lead me to doing what I love for the rest of my life. I majored in what I found interesting and indulged myself in what would lead up to having a job I ‘love’; which I believe is a luxury not everyone can afford. Especially since we live in a country where passion is dead and making good money (aka studying medicine or engineering) is what everyone talks about.
But girl, was I wrong. I figured out that at the end of the day: a job, is a job. For a very long time, I wanted to be a writer. Writing is my passion. I love sitting on my desk and letting my thoughts pour out onto a paper. I love creating characters and worlds that no one has ever heard of. But turning writing into a job was not what I expected it to be at all.
I just think it all went down when I felt restricted to certain guidelines and deadlines, whilst trying to meet the client’s expectations. Moreover, I figured out that a nine to five is not what I was cut out for. There’s no room for experimenting with my creative potential anymore.
So yeah, this is me debunking the whole ‘wont-feel-like-work’ ideology because not only does it set up false expectations but it also romanticizes the whole idea of work. There will be days when you will have to do things that you outright hate! It does not mean that you are doing anything wrong but you have to understand that there is a huge difference between a passion and turning that passion into a full-time job. So for now, I’m just going to stick to keeping that wonderful creative part of myself outside of my nine to five.
