What Is Passion?

Throughout my high school life the same questions were asked to me: "What do you want to do after high school?" "Where do you want to go to college?" "What are your plans after you graduate?" Unfortunately, 15 year old freshman me did not know how to answer these questions. But when responding with "I'm not sure yet." I was met with the inevitable "Oh well you still have time to think about it." or "Well what are you passionate about?" ... What was I passionate about? ... Well lots of things, or so I thought. I thought I loved journalism, no, I did love journalism, I loved writing stories for my school's yearbook; working on captions, mods, layouts, all of it. But was I passionate? Could such a strong significant word be used measly for a high school class, a grade, that in the end only further killed my "love" for journalism? A class where it only took the teacher's favoritism to make me feel miserable and eventually push me to dread entering that classroom. Now there were other important factors as to what made me fall out of love with that class along with journalism, but that's a topic for another day. So, journalism is off the table... what else do I like... Oh! I enjoy reading. But can one truly be passionate about something that sometimes feels like a chore? As of now, I'm so burnt out I haven't picked up a book since summer. It feels too daunting to attempt to pick up another book when I'm flooded with work daily and just thinking about reading after reading hundreds of words from my textbooks makes me feel exhausted. But, I have to have other passions, right? Maybe journaling? Another one that feels like a chore. Video Games? While I do love video games I doesn't feel as if I gain anything from playing them, similar to doom-scrolling. Just sort of entertaining myself and distracting myself from responsibilities. So, if I can't find anything I'm truly passionate about, how can I figure out a career that will fulfill me both financially and emotionally? A career I will not end up dreading everyday of my adult life, only to retire at age 50, hopefully, feeling as if I wasted my life away, slaving at a job that brought me no joy? How can I even begin to think of a single career I would enjoy, when any hobby I partake in feels like a burden that I can easily get burned out from? This then leads to the further question of: how can I attempt to even find passion? My school is a small one, and doesn't offer many opportunities for its students. I see they try, but its almost impossible to offer every opportunity ever to a small community, with students who could care less about going to college for even graduating high school. So, what am I to do? The only thing I can. Settle on reality. In reality, I am most prominent in science and math, and in order to meet at least my financial needs later in life, I should look into science and health careers. Despite it being morally wrong to settle on a career for money, especially those in the health care area, in this world only those with money are stress free and slightly privileged enough to get by in life. This world doesn't care for passion, creativity, or art, they only care for a principal of paper backed up by seemingly nothing, that has overtaken our morals, empathy, and lives. Therefore, is passion simply a concept deprived from those who want to express their love for something in a more meaningful way? Is passion something every human truly experiences to its fullest? Or another set of standards society believes you need in order to be happy? How can someone put a definition or standard on a concept that is thought of and felt differently by every individual? Would that further debunk the concept of passion since it cannot be debated due to its various conceptualizations? So frankly, What is Passion?