A recent conversation with my teenage daughter, Katie, centered around this question: “What do you love to do?”

So, as a 44-year-old looking back at life with the regret of wasted potential, I ask you, especially the younsters, the same question: “What do you love to do?”

Is your passion for what you love to do so strong that you would do it for free on your day off?

I am lucky because I can actually say that I love my job as the behavioral management coordinator at STAR Community Justice Center. I love being blessed with the opportunity to help others help themselves.

If needed, I will gladly go into the office, off the clock, because I truly love what I do.

I also love to write. Every opinion article I write for this newspaper, such as this one, is written for free because I love what I do. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to have my ramblings published and receive public feedback.

Because I am blessed to have both a vocation and a hobby I love, boredom, the number one destroyer of life, has few chances to get me in its grips.

I have the opportunity at times to help others with my writings, which means more to me than any dollar amount.

But, going back ten years and giving props to a young man named Shane Jones for altering my perspectives, it took thirty-four years for me to think about doing the things I love to do….or really care about anyone other than my immediate family.

Prior to that, I drifted, chased the Almighty Dollar, found false-happiness in local bars, and hated my jobs.

That wasn’t living. It was survival in a state of misery while constantly trying to figure out what I was really meant to do with this lone shot at life.

Today, I’m thoroughly convinced that having no purpose in life is the equivalent of having no life at all.

I stopped listening to the lies our culture creates about money and possessions providing happiness…and I started looking inside myself as the person solely responsible for making life meaningful for me.

Personally, I found that the most meaningful thing in life is to make life meaningful for others.

I began reading the Bible (again) and realizing (again) that Jesus Christ is the only hope I have in this life.

And I realized, slowly at first, that my life means absolutely nothing if I am in it just for me.

I realize I will never grow rich in possessions by doing things for free. But, I’ll be happier than the richest man on the planet simply because I chose (finally!) to follow my heart.

I hope Katie realized from our talk that her happiness in life will always be determined by her willingness to follow her heart…not bank statements, status, popularity, and all the lies our culture deceives us into believing to be important.

I know for a fact that these superficial beliefs bring nothing but sorrow and regret.

I also know that giving freely of yourself to others pays enormous dividends.

Once again, “What do you love to do?”

Finally, I know.

And I hope you do also.

 

Billy Bruce is a freelance writer who lives in Pedro. He can be contacted at hollandkat3@aol.com.