The Life of an Interest
An interest is a living entity. An interest must be cared for and tended to in order to thrive. An interest can very easily wither and disappear.
This may sound similar to many things we encounter in life, especially ourselves and the relationships we form between ourselves and others. This is because an interest is so similar to a living being, we just don’t often think of it the same way we think of a person, or the way we think about human relationships.
The life of any interest is a unique journey, just like our journey is through life. Interests are born, then grow and evolve, and finally die, either on their own or with us when we die.
An interest can be born out of anything, at any random moment, for any reason. I’m pretty sure everyone usually knows when and where an interest is sparked, although they might not know why. I for one, often find myself puzzled as to why I became interested in something.
An interest grows and evolves as we ourselves do. Let’s say I go to college to study X. X is my number one interest and pal, and I want to work with it for the rest of my life. But as college progresses and time passes, I learn about and explore more fields that pertain to X, but aren’t necessarily the exact path I started out on. X changes as I do. X sheds layers and grows branches, stripping away old ideas and goals that don’t apply to my journey anymore. This is absolutely fine, and in fact, I would be a little worried if my interests and opinions didn’t change any, as I constantly need to be feeling a sense of progression.
An interest’s life must come to an end, just as everything else in existence must. The way an interest ends can widely vary, but there are a few usual ways that it does. One way an interest can end is when the person connected to it passes. Some people carry interests throughout their entire life, and don’t ever leave them until the day they die. It isn’t unusual to have an interest that lasts your entire life, but the thing that separates the people who never lose an interest from most is that they tended to their interest day in and day out, and made sure it grew with them (plus a little luck that they didn’t randomly lose interest one day). An interest can also die on the spot. Someone may wake up one day and decide they don’t want to play the piano anymore. Is this okay? Yes, absolutely. You can’t control something like a sudden loss of interest, and it’s something that must be accepted. Death of an interest over time, in my opinion, means that it evolves so much that it isn’t even the same interest as it was before. For example, let’s say someone starts creating a mobile app and discovers that they don’t like coding, but they do love the design aspect. Their interest shifts and changes, and eventually the interest of development dies off completely, leaving the interest of design remaining. Is this okay too? Duh. Why wouldn’t it be? How can you possibly proceed happily in doing something if you aren’t interested in it?
“But I already knew this stuff.”, you may be saying to yourself. Well, yeah. I didn’t come up with a crazy new idea or anything, I’m just personifying an idea to get to a central point. The point being: It’s okay, and even normal, to lose interest in something. That’s why we must work so very hard to follow and tend to our interests while they’re here with us. The same thing applies to relationships between you and a loved one. What would life be if during every relationship you decided not to put in any effort because it would eventually end, or because you’ll “get around to it later”? Yes, an interest might end randomly one day, or maybe you’ll follow it for the rest of your life. Either way, you should put the same amount of effort into it: 100%.