Passion as a Privilege
By: Will Bowers
Tags: Mental Health, Education, Productivity, Life, Academia

Profiles of Passionates

We hear, from antiquity to the modern day, stories of people raising their kids to learn the family trade. By the time they reach adulthood, these children are skilled in the field, learning almost from birth how to navigate the field and build the necessary skills to succeed. Though the world has mostly changed, this is still alive and kicking in some regards.

A doctor is generally in an excellent position to explain to someone how they became a doctor, the mistakes they made, and how they overcame them. As such, their child is in a prime position to enter the medical training system, as they have a guide for the entire journey.

Jean was a seemingly happy-go-lucky Frenchman, a fellow student in my degree programme. He always seemed so excited, so engaged. Whatever you were working on, he loved to know, and would always find an angle of discussion, even if he had no direct experience in the area. One day, he showed me a photo on his phone.

A family friend had printed off the title, author list and abstract of his first scientific publication, and put it into a frame next to the title, author list, and abstract of his father’s first publication from 20 years before. Then it made more sense. His father turned out to be an overly sociable academic, and growing up, there were always academics from some field or other hanging out in his parents’ house. He was surrounded by the energy that would impassion him and boost him upwards.

Molly was an incredible musician. From a young age, she was a multi-instrumental prodigy. Learning musical instruments is good for the mind, and is found to improve learning in other parts of one’s life. This was clear from how she went from never having driven to passing her driving test in the space of a month and a half during a study period before exams and just before trying out for the national orchestra.

She went on to study at one of the world’s best conservatories. Her parents were both trained musicians too. I heard fairly regularly about how her parents gave her new ways to overcome struggling to learn new instruments or more complex techniques. They helped her build her passionate livelihood. They also had the financial means and the priority to bolster her passion.

Then there was Daniel. He’d grown up in the rural outskirts of a large city in the US Midwest. His parents were, in his own words, “loving rednecks”. I met them once. They seemed like kind people, but with little awareness of the greater world. However, he could get on his bike, and during his summers while in high school, he’d cycle to the nearby university, where he’d do research.

This eventually netted him a summer studentship and later a place in the PhD programme at one of the best universities in the world. While his parents weren’t passionate people, he had easy access to people who were and facilities to help him pursue his passion.

So what do these people have in common? They have easy access to Passionates; either in their home or not far from it, guiding them to build their passion, skills and knowledge in a healthy, manageable, and efficient way.