Finding your true passion

By: Dario A. Gutierrez

Growing up with a middle class family in a small town in Honduras, I quickly became aware that learning things and school where relatively easy for me, and that my successes in my classes got me accolades and made my parents and teachers happy. So, I decided, why not? It was easier than not getting accolades and having my parents angry or worse, disappointed at me. In Honduras, like in most countries, if you as a child are found to be “intelligent”, like I was, it is immediately assumed that you will become a medical doctor; so this became my goal but I never knew if it was truly my passion. What do I mean by “intelligent”? I am now almost 30, I earned my doctorate degree at 26, and after having finished at the top or near top of my class in elementary school, middle school, high school and college, I am finally starting to learn that I was not really “intelligent” but simply had a good memory and a very left-sided brain. Having a very left-sided brain gave me the opportunity in this cookie-cutter society to always meet and exceed expectations; but what would have happened if I didn’t, this I guess I will never find out.

Finally after so many years, I am pulling my head off my a**, and have started appreciating other people who are truly remarkable and intelligent and don’t have Dr. preceding their name. However, I have also come to the realization that in this day and age, people with a right brain dominance, who don’t want to stick to the cookie-cutter path, like I did, have a much harder time finding opportunities to develop their full potential. I truly believe that our educational system should be changed in order to allow people to become good at what they are truly passionate about, which will not be the same path for every child/person.

Despite the fact that I followed the cookie-cutter path, for the time being, I believe that I have truly found my passion. I must say that thankfully, I realized early enough that I was not passionate enough about medicine, so I took an “alternative” path by then going on to become a scientist. Although, many people at the stage of my career (postdoc) are preoccupied about our low salaries and the very seldom job opportunities to make it to the next stage, what keeps me awake at night is what experiment should I do next to show that my hypothesis is right. I belligerently read published work that is related to my cells, and my newly found favorite organ (the small intestine), and try to find ways to incorporate them into my data. It honestly feels like a detective game, which were my favorite games as a child, but this is not longer a fantasy but truly how I earn a living.

The moral of the story, if there has to be one after all this rambling, is that you should do what your passionate about, despite what every one else thinks or society forces you to do. Obviously we have to adapt to the society we live in, ability of adaptation being in my opinion the best measure of intelligence, so maybe we have to follow a cookie-cutter path as a means to get to do what we are truly passionate about. Thankfully, for now, I think I have found my passion but I’ll keep my options and mind open to whatever comes next.