Passion or Obsession?

by Isla Sligo-Young

Over the last few weeks Year 12 has been met by an increased focus surrounding application for university. While different sources give varied advice, the topic always seem to return to the demonstration of the impact that the course you want to study has had on your life so far. A speaker recently recommended combing back through your past and demonstrating how decisions through your life; the earlier the better, have led you to your decision. Overall, the value is seen through demonstrating your ‘passion’ for your future study, by recounting why e.g. computing to chemistry is your vocation. 

Simultaneously to this I also heard about the benefit of identifying early obsession in children, as an activity that retains a child unrequited energy can be deemed as a flag for concern. This topic did touch a personal chord as I can unashamedly say that from the age of around eight I developed an obsessive passion for animals, which entailed: reading and rereading both fiction and non- fiction books/magazines, a significant change in behaviour that best enabled me to be in contact with different animals and the majority of creative expression surrounding them as well. This endeavour is now proving invaluable for my application, but if my parents had thought it an obsession would they have tried to steer me away?

When I try to distinguish between the two I am left with obsession conjuring an image of the Netflix’s programme ‘You’, while passion seems to display enthusiasm for a topic. But realistically both words entail a shift in behaviour and a focus of attention. So how could a parent or adult recognise a healthy or unhealthy desire for a topic or whether it is right to try and target a child’s passion to enable them to acquire a space at university. There appears no unanimous decisions upon research, which leads me back to an anecdotal solution of my cousin. He is nine and struggles to read, but also has a passion/obsession for robots. Which leads him to reading extremely complex books from electrical components to overall design, however slowly, that are well above his reading level. While this may distract from his current homework, hopefully his reading will progress to enable his to learn more about the topic he is interested in.  Overall, I think that if a child is tending to show an obsession for a topic they should be encouraged, as it may prove a phase that helps them to develop or provide them with a passion for the future.