You Will Hate Your Hobby If You Make It Your Job
“You might hate music or art if you try to make it your job.”
That was the worst advice I’ve ever received during my senior year of high school.
I often parroted this ridiculous explanation to people who asked me why I was teaching rather than playing music. “Oh, I think I’d grow to hate music if I did it full-time.”
(Wrong. I wasn’t pursuing music then because I was scared I wasn’t good enough or that I wouldn’t make enough money.)
You see, no one hates their art or music when they make it their job. You might hate the business around the art or music, you might dislike traveling long hours to gigs, you might hate reading legal contracts, but you don’t hate music.
Same goes for teachers: No one should hate working with kids or dislike their favorite subject (English, math, history) because of the politics or business of the classroom. You might dislike grading papers, you might dislike having too many students in your classroom, you might be discouraged that the govenor signed a bill that decreases funding for education; but you don’t hate working with kids or hate literature.
I stopped believing we hate our hobbies when we make them our jobs. Instead, I believe we love our lives when we can pursue our passions to the fullest; that we are willing to find ways to work around the complications when we care about what we do.
Life is always full of complications. Why not accept the complications around something you love?
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