Passions - Tumblr Posts
His touch seared my skin, leaving traces of passion.
EL
I’m 26 this month and I’m a uni student in a degree that combines all my passions in one. It took me 8 years to figure out what I loved. Had I took the shitty advice people give you at 17/18, I would’ve become a psychologist, which I’m sure I would’ve been good at but I found out it’s not my passion. I would have a degree in something I’d grow loathing for while longing for passions unknown. I wouldn’t have had the time to reflect on my thoughts and actions that led me down this path.
Kids, if it takes you a decade to figure this shit out, then take a decade. 20 isn’t old, and neither is 30. Keep trying things out, of course, keep furthering your life and being productive, but if you don’t have an answer for who you want to be for the rest of your life in your teens, don’t let other people tell you what you should be.
Try out new things until you find something you love, then grind your skills in it until you’re good enough to make money from it or go to uni for it (if you truly want to! A good portfolio can get you very far without uni in a lot of cases! Research what minimum qualifications you need thoroughly, not just the first result on google). Please, don’t be pressured into doing a degree you aren’t excited to do. Yes, the excitement will likely wane after it gets harder, but if it’s truly for you you’ll stick through it.
Self-reflection should be a skill taught in schools, but unfortunately it isn’t, so you’ll need to develop it yourself. It’ll hurt, but you’ll grow so much.
Please don’t rush life, it’s not a super Mario 64 speed run, the only person you’re in competition with is yourself, and don’t expect to be the same level of productive every day, be gentle and patient with yourself. /end rant
I think that when we tell teenagers that their lives will be over if they don't have the most perfect possible trajectory through the education system, that this is, perhaps, if I may be bold, not good for them,
Generation X, Y and Z. Here we are. Hardly focus. Hardly reckon.
For those who can’t get hold of The Times, or who don’t have paywall access to their website, here is the text of the interview with Mark Gatiss published today (18 July 2015). Transcribed below as an extra bonus:
What I’ve learnt - Mark Gatiss
People have this extraordinary idea that I’m some sort of Renaissance man. They will say, “I always thought you’d play the piano”, but I can’t play a single musical instrument. I don’t speak any foreign languages. I can’t drive. I can’t cook. I can only do two things: act and write.
Life’s too short to tolerate people who have massive mood swings. I literally cannot bear it.
When you’re young and angsty, love seems like the most important thing in the world. I remember ringing this guy I was seeing and having a very stiff conversation. I put the phone down and immediately poured my heart into writing him a thousand-page long letter about it. He said that he was sorry, it’s just there had been other people in the room and he couldn’t really talk. I thought, “Great. Now I look like a nutter.”
Owning a dog is like having a kept idiot. They are just so silly. Ours makes us laugh every day.
Let the people decide. Don’t try to second-guess why programmes such as Sherlock or Doctor Who are so successful. You can’t create a committee to sit down and quantify why they work. It’s too cynical. Conan Doyle never really understood why people liked Sherlock Holmes more than anything else he ever did. But the key is just to give in. You have to think, “What do I know?”
It’s easy to feel like the grass is always greener. As a kid I longed to come from somewhere like Oxford or Cambridge, because it all seemed so pretty. All I wanted was dreaming spires and cloisters. But it does you a lot of good not to have had that. I went to a very ordinary secondary in a grim postwar new town. No privilege at all.
I think the baddies are winning. There is the smell of darkness and corruption in the air.
Every actor has phases. I have entered a patrician phase, playing very Peter Mandelson-esque characters. I get offered a lot now.
Get people’s names right. One of the few things that really bothers me is that people constantly spell my name wrong. They assume it doesn’t matter. Yes, it matters. It’s my bloody name! I’ll get emails begging me to do something and they’ve misspelt it. Those emails instantly disappear.
TV commissioners are inherently timid and frightened of spending money. It makes it very hard to get new ideas off the ground. It’s a bother and a worry.
I’m no saint but I’m grounded, I think. I don’t like bulls***. I don’t like bad people. And I love manners. If I had a motto I could put on a t-shirt, it would be, “Work hard, don’t be a c***”. [which four letter swear word beginning with C that is remains a mystery, thanks prudish editors]
I have something of a love affair with disembodied aliens. As a writer I’ve always been interested in possession and being taken over. Maybe it’s from watching The Exorcist too much as a child. It’s good, though, because they’re quite cheap. You don’t have to spend a fortune on costumes.
The older you get, the faster time passes. I now get a lot of people saying, “Oh, I loved The League of Gentlemen when I was a kid.” It’s rather alarming. When I was 30 my dad rang me up and said, “Wait till you get to 40, son, then it really flies.” And he was quite right.
““Once on Mount Athos there was a monk who lived in Karyes. He drank and got drunk every day and was the cause of scandal to the pilgrims. Eventually he died and this relieved some of the faithful who went on to tell Elder Paisios that they were delighted that this huge problem was finally solved. Father Paisios answered them that he knew about the death of the monk, after seeing the entire battalion of angels who came to collect his soul. The pilgrims were amazed and some protested and tried to explain to the Elder of whom they were talking about, thinking that the Elder did not understand. Elder Paisios explained to them: “This particular monk was born in Asia Minor, shortly before the destruction by the Turks when they gathered all the boys. So as not to take him from their parents, they would take him with them to the reaping, and so he wouldn’t cry, they just put raki into his milk in order for him to sleep. Therefore he grew up as an alcoholic. There he found an elder and said to him that he was an alcoholic. The elder told him to do prostrations and prayers every night and beg the Panagia to help him to reduce by one the glasses he drank. After a year he managed with struggle and repentance to make the 20 glasses he drank into 19 glasses. The struggle continued over the years and he reached 2-3 glasses, with which he would still get drunk.” The world for years saw an alcoholic monk who scandalized the pilgrims, but God saw a fighter who fought a long struggle to reduce his passion.“ *** The point of the story is, too often we can’t see beyond the external failures or weaknesses of a person, and all we see is a failure, someone who doesn’t measure up to our standards. But God sees the heart of someone who is battling every day, and keeps battling, keeps struggling, keeps trying, and loves them. May we "judge with righteous judgment”.”
—
The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios, by
Dionysios Farasiotis
I’m not crying you’re crying
“Dreams and passion are more powerful than facts and reality”(Gail Lynne Goodwin) Just because I’m a yoga teacher doesn’t mean that I just need to love my work. There are other things that I love to do and one of them is beach. I really love beach and specially empty beaches. Do I love yoga? Yes. But I prefer to spend day at the beach. 🙏🏼 #yogalife #passions #beachday #beachlover #selfie #yogilife #beach (at Praia de Carcavelos) https://www.instagram.com/p/CedqUGks6cI/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
