At what age did you find a passion? It can be any interest that persisted for a long time.
I 'found' a passion for birds when I was around 10, viewing a bird field guide to North America, filled with photographs of all 700+ birds, of my grandfathers. Had I not seen that book, I am not sure I would have 'found' it -- at least that early. Who knows these things, right? What would have happened had I not seen that book? But passion for nature and environmental issues sprouted from there, whether due to starting to go birding at a young age, or due to science classes in school, or a combination of things.
I'd say my other 'passions' were things I didn't necessarily 'find', such as being drawn to art at a young age; perhaps more just a natural inclination that had the opportunity to be fed via the act of going to school, where this sort of thing was part of the curriculum.
And I always had a passion for reading; I think we 'find' things by being presented them at some point, and either having a natural affinity for it, in which case we dive in, or we just relatively immediately chuck it.
My passion for nature photography started around age 25 - it was just a natural progression / 'next step' to my already being passionate about the outdoors and going on hikes, etc.
Also related questions:
- was there a point in childhood where you found that you developed opposite traits to your normal personality?
My childhood was a long time ago. I am almost 42 now. I don't think - for me, at least - one has a really objective view of ones personality at that young of an age -- at least, in the sense of being able to *know* what is 'normal' vs not. I do know that around sixth grade social nuances changed, and junior high was a rather traumatizing experience for me and it's at that time that I went really inward. Is this 'opposite' to my 'normal' personality? Or was it my actual personality unfolding/ developing? Probably the latter. I think we learn more and define ourselves more as we grow older.
- was there a point in your youth when you decided you wanted to be greater, and really excel in something?
I was always someone who wanted to excel at everything I did - so this applied to academics as well as my hobbies - ballet, piano, oboe, art (though music replaced visual arts for my teenage years, as I could only do one or the other in my school program). I don't think, for me, there was an isolated 'point' where I just decided I wanted to excel.
- was there a point where you felt your old personality "die away", and perhaps adopted a more spiritual mindset?
I feel I have gone through many mini transitions throughout my life. I consciously shed my 'old personality' for the first few years in college, somewhat experimentally, and somewhat because I held some shame around how I was throughout junior and high school; so I deliberately did things socially to 'prove' to myself I could, I guess, and to have experiences that I didn't have as a teenager. After a few years of that I reverted more back to how I had been, with learnings from my experimental phase; during this time I jumped briefly into a religious mindset for a few years, exploring that. I then chucked that in my early 20's and carved a different world view. Then I tried different things out, but my biggest shift/hump where I really felt jarred and displaced from my 'true self' was my mid to late 30's, and I've only fairly recently felt stabilized again.
I guess all of this is to say, I don't necessarily view myself any longer as 'changing' or drastically altering my personality, or there being an original blueprint and now I'm off somewhere else; I think all of my choices fall to the same personality, and it's just more that I don't have, and never have had, a super rigid perceptual sense of who I am. In this sense I think I might be viewed as changeable (esp in terms of how I view myself and in context with other people/perceptions); otoh I think you could also argue this facet is very defining and 'rigid' in its own way?
- do you find that over the years, you become increasingly and increasingly further along in how deep you understand reality?
(provide an approximate age for these things where possible)
Doubtful. If anything I feel less certain the more I grow older. But I think there would have been times in my 20's I might have said this, or in my early 30's. I will say though that I feel as the more years go by and the more experience I accumulate, the more I have to draw upon and I'm not as quick to believe I 'understand reality', even though at the same time I feel I DO have a greater understanding of things. I think I just realize more that the greater understanding I have, the less able I am to come up with a really ironclad world view.