Submission — Will Lister

Passion and Desire

19. Januar 2014 — MYP No. 13 »My Desire« — Text & Photo: Will Lister

desire
noun
a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen:
[with infinitive ] a desire to work in the dirt with your bare hands.

I personally think that desire is something that changes with age. It begins with desires to achieve the greatest things you can think of. For many children, they aspire to be their heroes. As you get older, your aspirations change with what you deem as possible, you go from wanting to be something like an astronaut, to something you see as much more ordinary. I think that this is a sad thing that happens to most people. I began wanting to be something great and amazing, and as I grew older, my thoughts changed and the social environment around me, mainly my school, persuaded me to aspire to be something that was deemed more ‘ordinary’ and to follow a path that many people have followed before. It was only recently that my view switch back to one that was similar when I was 8 years of age.

Something that has always been a passion in my life is music. I started playing guitar at the age of 9 and between that age and around 12 years old, all I wanted to do was to be in a rock band and tour the world.

When I began secondary school, I was quickly told by those involved in education that that simply wasn’t a realistic option and that I should focus on something else. I chose science as that more ‘realistic’ focus. But more recently, I thought that if I wasn’t doing the thing I was most passionate about in my life, what point was there in waking up everyday and doing it?

Nowadays, my desire isn’t necessarily to be a touring rock band, but the only reason this has changed is due to taste and that is a decision that I have made and no one else has influenced. The only thing that I want to wake up and do everyday is music, and so I decided that that is what I’m going to do.

I understand that in this article, I have spoken mostly about my experiences, and I guess that my view that I have is a personal view due to the fact I am only 17, but I also am happy that I’ve had this change in opinion, as I now look forward to my career which is something I hadn’t necessarily felt previously.

I strongly believe that ‘passion’ and ‘desire’ are two words that go hand in hand, that they are strongly linked and that your desires should follow your passions.