Skip to main content

Enduring Spark

Image
By

It is exhilarating to witness the sparkle in the eyes of university applicants as they declare, without hesitation, the career path they intend to pursue. It is a calling — both innocent and profound — but, of course, it does not emerge without the weight of socio-economic pressure, personal and familial expectations, immense stress, and long hours of anxiety.

Yet, the road ahead is long, and many rush through this stage, only to find themselves soon facing academic pressure, financial demands, and, inevitably, the stark reality of the job market. Learning to live with uncertainty is one of adulthood’s greatest challenges, as that initial gleam in the eyes gradually gives way to a furrowed brow.

Through steady strides and inevitable stumbles, a person grows, steps into the world, and builds a family. They begin to share both dreams and debts — but also achievements and passions. They may take up regular exercise — if instilled with the habit early on. Meditation — if persuaded by mounting stress. And amidst moments of anguish, they live a modest life of fleeting happiness.

Were humankind better prepared to serve others — to be of use without the relentless pursuit of titles and material worth — perhaps, just perhaps, the world would offer a fairer future for its youth. For now, however, this remains a fragile ideal, and it is rare to enter adulthood without noticing one’s motivation waver as the days unfold.

Yet, it is possible to preserve that youthful calling well into adulthood. It is a learned cognitive effort, an expression of enthusiasm. Unlike motivation, which is an emotion, enthusiasm is a state of cognitive readiness — something that can be deliberately cultivated.

What truly matters is recognising the need to nurture, step by step, an attitude of genuine interest — towards study, work, and family — the essential pillars of a productive maturity. Problems are an inescapable part of life, but so too are solutions. And as long as one retains curiosity for life itself, there will always be room for both motivation and enthusiasm, in one form or another.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Loyalty and the Quiet Companionship of Pippen

By
I have a cosmopolitan friend who, by the mercy of chance — that discreet and impartial arbiter of destinies — was born in Serbia. Industrious beyond measure, he treats work not merely as obligation but as a quiet philosophy, a means of aligning oneself with the silent order of things. And he is a companion of a rare kind: steadfast, discerning, and, above all, loyal. His name is Pippen. We first crossed paths in the now-vanished days of Google+ — that fleeting agora where, for a moment, the world’s geeks entertained the gentle delusion that they might, in time, inherit the Earth. It was an age of bright aspiration, tinged with naïveté, yet marked by a peculiar fellowship that transcended all borders and conventions. Among Pippen’s many virtues, loyalty stands pre-eminent. Not the clamorous, performative loyalty so fashionable in this restless age, but the quieter, unwavering kind — the loyalty of one who stays. It is revealed not in grand gestures but in small, consistent a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Subtle Daily Happiness

By
Happiness is a landscape hidden in the details. It does not arrive with trumpets, but in whispers: a ray of sunlight slipping through the window, the scent of morning coffee, the hush before a burst of laughter. We live in an age that mistakes happiness for grandeur, as if it depended on spectacular achievements or material possessions. Yet, its essence lies in the opposite—in the ability to notice what is already there, nearly invisible, yet full of meaning. There is an irony in this. While we chase ambitious goals—promotions, travels, recognition—we overlook what the philosopher Epicurus called “simple pleasures”: a conversation with a friend, the joy of an unhurried meal, the quiet sense of belonging when watching the sunset. Neuroscience reinforces this idea: small moments of connection or contemplation trigger neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, responsible for our sense of well-being. Happiness, then, is not a destination, but a way of walking. Part of its subtlety l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ten Voices, One Silence

By
There were ten of them — though at times they spoke as one murmuring voice, and at others, like ten distinct silences, each fractured differently by the strain of being. They were not chosen as idols for a shelf, nor as exhibits in some canonical museum. Rather, they happened to me — each arriving, unbidden, during the long, luminous solitude of study. They were not so much read as endured, not so much admired as absorbed. What they gave me was not knowledge, but permission — to question, to unravel, to dwell within the unsayable. Sophocles carved fate into stone. He gave suffering a chorus and lent blindness a voice. In his tragedies, destiny is not an event but a law — impersonal, inescapable. His characters do not fall because they err, but because they exist. He was the architect of inevitability. Through him, I grasped that form can contain anguish without flinching. Dante Alighieri descended, and rose again. His Divine Comedy traced the arc of the soul with a pilgrim’...
Post a Comment
Read more