“Passion” has become something of a buzzword in college admissions. It’s what colleges say they appreciate. It’s what counselors advise kids to bring to the forefront in their applications. And I’ve certainly preached passion here. When a student finds, commits to, and then relates an interest that genuinely excites them, it leads to happier kids and more successful college applications.
But do we do kids a disservice if we lead them to believe that a fully formed passion is out there just waiting to be discovered?
Some people may pick up an instrument or a golf club or a paintbrush and immediately know that they’ve found a calling worth committing to. But that’s not how passion and people usually find each other.
What’s far more common is for a student (or an adult) to explore a variety of interests and eventually find something they initially enjoy. They spend some time learning the craft and find they have a knack for it. They get hooked on that feeling of continuously getting better at something that matters to them. Taken to a logical extreme, that commitment can eventually be defined as a passion. But it doesn’t happen overnight. And it often was an unpredictable discovery in retrospect.
When applied to college admissions, passion is best defined as an interest that lights a teenager up today. Teenagers are not fully formed, and the interest needn’t be connected to a future major or career path. While a college would hope that the student applying as an engineering major has more than a casual interest in mathematics, there is no shame in that applicant relating that their performances with their improv comedy troupe are the highlight of their high school week. From the college’s perspective, an applicant with passion has demonstrated the ability to seek, discover, and commit to something where they make an impact. That’s exactly the kind of student who will repeat that process within the boundless opportunities available at college.
Kids entering high school should explore different activities. If they have existing interests they want to follow, great. But if the unexplored seems appealing, we should let them go explore. There’s no formula to find passion, and the spark that could one day lead to it may be in something a student has never before thought to try.
As students progress through high school, encourage them to evaluate how they’re spending their time. What activities and interests do they seem to enjoy most? How might they become even more involved (if they feel the calling to do so), even if doing so required that they leave another activity they’re less attached to behind? That process of seeking and committing is where passion is most likely to present itself.
Passion, at least in its fully formed state, is rarely found and can’t be forced. It’s created when opportunity, interest, and commitment come together.
Here’s some scientific evidence out of Stanford University that “Find your passion” is bad advice. As the study points out, passion isn’t a fixed interest waiting to be discovered—it’s something to develop and cultivate.