Question Number One: Practicality vs. Passion

I have always wondered how and why so many millions of people end up settling for an occupation that they despise.  Somewhere, there is an accountant who once dreamed of touring the world and singing her songs for millions of screaming fans.  Somewhere, there is a store owner who secretly writes pages to a novel that he will never bother to get published.  Somewhere, there is a little girl who auditions for a musical with a huge dream in her heart, and when she is told "no", she will give up forever.  She will become something "practical"- a lawyer, a businesswoman, a nurse.  She will make money and live comfortably, but she will not dream.

This brings me to my question for the week:

Is it always better to choose practicality over passion?

The typical and ideal picture of a content, happy life consists of a few basic components:
a nice house, a steady income, and a happy family.  To achieve this picture, it seems as if many make the decision to forget "nonsense dreams" and settle for a job that pays well and can support a family-even if that means detesting your job and everything about it.  However, an occupation is more than an income.  It is what you wake up every morning to, it is how you spend each and every one of your days, it is your entire life.  Essentially, it is who you are.  So why would anyone who has a choice choose to settle?

Too often, our passions in life are not practical.  And what is practical is not our passion.   

My passion is writing.  I have wanted to write for almost my entire life, but too many times have I heard the word "practical" from family, friends, and teachers.  Writers may not always receive a steady income.  Writers do not have guaranteed job opportunities lined up at every corner.  Aspiring to be a writer may not be the most practical idea.  I know that I could be anything I put my mind to-I could be a lawyer, I could be an engineer, I could be a doctor.  But I do not want to be any of those things.  My passion is fabricating letters and making them words, stringing words together to make sentences, manipulating sentences to create a story. 
There is no way of knowing for sure if I should follow the path that my passion wants to lead me, or if I should follow the practical path that leads me to a steady income and a typical life.

Unanswerable Questions

"Life is an unanswered question, but let's still believe in the dignity and importance of the question."

-Tennessee Williams

 

Today, I made a decision completely out of the blue.  I woke up with a distinct desire prodding at my very being like an itch I could not scratch.  It would not evade me, even as I began my hectic day.  For the first time in my life, I had an overpowering longing to start a blog. 

My goal from the start was to focus on life’s everlasting questions.  Every day as I experience everything life has to offer-both the torments and the moments of utter happiness-new questions seem to arise with every fleeting moment.  These questions all have one thing in common: They are all virtually unanswerable.

I will probably never be able to provide an answer to any of these questions that constantly stream through my mind.  However, I will be able to ask them.  Of course, maybe there is no reason to ask a question that has no answer.  Or maybe, just maybe, there is. 

My name is Madison.  I'm sixteen years old and as clueless about life as one can get.  The perpetual list of questions that seem to follow me everywhere I go might never disappear.  I might always be clueless.  But my hope is that as my life progresses and as each new day passes, I'll be a little less clueless than I was the day before.

And so begins my blogging journey-with Question Number One.