Last Thursday, my mentor, who shall be called Mister M henceforth, spent an hour lecturing me on how to accept a new role that was dropped on me by top management.
It had been difficult for me to truly embrace the new role of going back to the newsroom after I successfully developed an intense passion for public relations and digital marketing.
Just like any professional tossed into a new arena, I am filled with resistance and even just a little bit of fear for being given a responsibility that was entirely out of alignment with what I had been working on for the past six months.
Perhaps Mister M sought to pacify my young rebellious heart leading him to take up an hour for a sermon on passion versus responsibility.
But it did work! After talking my ears off, he successfully convinced me to see the “move” from a different perspective. He was able to do what my bosses failed to get through me for the past four weeks: make me understand the value I brought into my new role, and why I was needed there.
One of the most striking lines my mentor said in that arduous conversation was this, “Your passion lies in one stronger than the other. But most people never get to work for their passions most of their lives. Passion projects are often done by the rich and those who have retired.”
Pretty bold statement for someone who spent his entire life in the upper echelons of Cebu’s society. But he has a point.
I have been fortunate to squander my youth working for my passions because I lived a comfortable enough life to do so. My parents worked hard to give me and my siblings a little head start and being the youngest, I got the chance to make more risks in life because I’m used to getting what I want.
I have never worked simply out of responsibility. When I was a reporter in the thick of the media, I worked on field because I wanted to, not because I had to. It allowed me to fulfill my desire to write news and experience everything without fear of consequences.
When I accepted the new challenge of PR and Digital Marketing, I threw my heart into my studies with a burning passion, again because I wanted to, not because I had to.
This is the first time I took a job out of responsibility because someone asked me to. My boss, who opened so many doors for me in the past year, asked me to take on the position.
For the first time in my trifle experience, I had to work on something out of responsibility, not out of passion. This was difficult to accept but somehow it’s something I needed to learn.
I never realized how spoiled of a brat I am until now. Not to criticize my family’s upbringing of me because I have always excelled in whatever I took on and am a functional member of society, but I realized I was raised to get what I want.
Nobody has ever asked me to truly do something I do not want because it was my responsibility to do so. Now, I’m learning something new.
You never really truly stop learning, and I guess I unlocked a new part of me.