It's interesting how you can be searching and searching for your purpose and passion, and once you just admit to yourself what it is, it becomes so obvious. I don't know, this might be redundant. I'll explain what I mean.
It becomes obvious either way, that is to say it's a matter of trial and error. You just have to go with it; go with something. Take it and run. And when you realize it's not the right thing, you try one of the other things on your list. It seems in order to succeed, you have to be open to the idea of failure. If failure is not an option, it seems to me that true happiness is not, either.
Society has primed us to believe that simply trying something to see how you might like it is not okay. We must do something, and commit to it, to the bitter end. My point is not to refute that completely; not that there aren't things we shouldn't commit to wholeheartedly, but that it's okay to be wrong.
I feel that the way I found out what career path I want was to put myself fully into an idea, as if nothing would stop me from achieving it, with the exception of myself. Then, if I decided it wasn't what I wanted, I could just change my mind. And although I look to the people who know me well to help me make decisions, I had to make the decisions on my own. If I were to make them based on what anyone else wants, it probably wouldn't make me happy with my decision.
I think in order to figure out where your passion lies, you just have to dive into one of the possibilities. You also have to be able to be honest with yourself as to what the possibilities are; be courageous, and yet realistic, while remaining true to yourself. And if it doesn't work out, try the next one on the list. When you pick the right one, it just seems so clear.
Then it's on to the rest of life's decisions...
