Exploring my passion

DEAR DAIRY,

"Exploring my passion"

BY SHEETAL SCHNEIDER

Today I realised the importance of having a solid direction or more specifically a purpose in life. Most people have no certainty about what line of work they will pursue, what they will study, if they will marry or have children. Is it really that imperative to know right now, however? Somehow the advancement in technology, the internet and computer platforms, make that kind of decision-making so much easier.

We live in a world connected, manipulated and run by technology. In an ever changing world, the gaps in geography and culture seem to be closing in faster each day. Social media networking and cell phones with instant messaging capabilities across the globe, means we no longer have to seek friends from across the street. In a world where technology can make or break your image, it’s quickly becoming the tool that most people use to mass market themselves and their companies.

So I find myself at a cross roads with culture and the pride of being open minded enough to question most of what I have been taught. I would love to think that I had the right upbringing, but with my parents divorcing when I was just eight, I have to wonder. I used to think that religion, G*d and the balance of the universe offered some explanation, but every time I switch my laptop on and connect to the World Wide Web, I feel differently.

Technology has become a drug for me. Sending and receiving some 70 e-mails a day, uploading and downloading content, scratching my head to update my Facebook and Twitter. I can’t explain it. Then at the end of a really long day, I look at my office and realise once again I have allowed myself to be seduced by the aroma of caffeine dripping from a scolding hot pot.  There are cups all over my desk and behind my pc. Did I really gulp down that many fills? Where did the time go and why do I still have the need to be online and available for that one last e-mail, that one last message or that final social media update?

It would seem the world is burning with enthusiasm to find familiarity in the lives of others and I am going down in flames with it. Mirror, Mirror on the wall, tell me why I can no longer sleep without scheduling the wonderful, innovative ways I am going to rape my bandwidth tomorrow?

I like to think, although I don’t have all the answers, I realise that the answer was there all along. It not my lack of social life or inability to connect on an emotional level with people across the table from me, that keeps me going. It is the endless possibilities that I have not yet begun to explore, and know in my heart, that I just one step away from finding what I seek the most in the world, my next adventure.