#Writing101 The Death of Originality?/My Search for a Passion and My Purpose

Have you ever thought about the death of originality? This has been on my mind for a very long time. In my opinion, the death of originality is imminent, or, it is already here. Maybe it does not include all aspects of items, but surely originality is dead in a more than one area of life.

I think there is no more originality in names. These names can include names for our children, song names, etc. Search on the internet for your favorite song and don’t include the artist’s name. What do you think you will find? Or search the internet for one part of your name. There must be at least a few thousand other Fredericks out there.

This may or not be an influence by my father, but originality in car designs seem to be dead as well. I’m sure there’s a completely reasonable explanation for this, but there are a range of cars out there which looks exactly like one another, apart from minor differences in rearlights, tails etc. The general frame and body and size or shape of certain cars are almost similiar to others. I can’t name examples; I’m somehow unable to memorize cars.

Don’t you find this worrying? What if one day, you come up with something authentic… just to realize later that some bloke has already patented it? We have been designing new products for a good two thousand years. What if one fine day, the few million engineers, designers and artists finally run out of genuinely authentic and original things to create?

I wonder if the general contents of this post I’m typing runs along the lines of some famous theory that has already been publicized…?

(*checks stopwatch* what!? That took a mere ten minutes.. ten more to go)

Okay, let’s talk about another topic. Let’s talk passion and purpose.

Are you clear where your passion lies?

And do you have an inkling of what your purpose is?

I don’t. I am at the mature age of nineteen now (mature, you said? Is that doubt, I hear in your voice? Perhaps young would be a more suitable adjective? It’s a matter of perspective really.)

Anyway, a big question that all nineteen year olds have is: “What university course should I enter?” (I think I exaggerated too much in this post) Since my undergraduate course decides my future career path, I then wonder what job suits me. I wonder about that everyday, really. Perhaps I should make that decision based on my talents.

I have talents. Not much, just some, but talents nevertheless. I can skateboard, sing, dance, play musical instruments, and entertain people. At the same time, I have cuts and scrapes, listeners who cover their ears and contort their face in disgust, and people who tell me my jokes are horrible. I said I have talents, I never said they were sublime 🙂

If I were to list my single, best talent. I would say I am multi-talented. Contradictory? Pretty much. Let me explain. I am talented in learning things quickly. However, it comes and it goes. Whatever I learn, I never remain interested in it. Maybe it’s because I learn so quickly that I am too flexible for my own good and am constantly switching interests. In other words, my passion changes every two weeks.

(The stopwatch sounded. Okay let’s wrap this up.)

In my search for advice on what undergraduate course to pursue, my questions are often answered with another question.

I ask: “What course should I pursue?”

“Where your talents, passion, and the community’s need intersect, there lies your purpose. We already know what the community needs.. engineers, artists, doctors…. but what are your talents and passion?”

“My interest comes and goes. Which course allows me to switch jobs every two weeks?”

The Ritual of Watch-Buying

Over the weekend, I came to be in possession of a small fortune disguised as a handsome wristwatch. Thanks, mom. Thanks, dad. This is the first time I had a watch worth this much. I’m probably wearing the most expensive item I own on my wrist. But this post is not to brag. This watch feels like a burden to me.

My previous watches had never cost more than half a thousand but I liked them. They were hardy and casual and they told the time. And frankly, that’s all anyone should ask from a timepiece of any sort. I wear my watches to sleep and to bathe and I almost never take them off. They would be there when I’m engaging in sports and other activities, where sometimes, my wrist would clash with a hard surface. Those watches did the job of protecting me, as watches should. I treat my watches a sort of wrist armor. Of course, they inevitably became scratched, but the well-worn state made them look even better. It symbolises the rough times we had together (hah! A pun.)

But now, I’m not wearing an armor anymore, despite it being more expensive than the sum of all the watches I’ve ever worn. The roles are reversed; where watches previously protected me, now I’m supposed to care for my new timepiece. This sounds slightly exaggerated, but in some sense, that’s the way I feel. “We love things and we use humans.” My life is going to be radically different from now on. These gears and springs in a glass cylinder attached to a shiny chain is going to control my life from time to time: making me waste minutes to clean it, to be mindful enough to remove it before games, to give me a day or more of rummaging through hell if I ever lose it…

However, on the flipside, I guess it also represents something more significant though: a proof that my parents are confident of my responsibility to own an expensive timepiece. Perhaps in their eyes, I am finally a man.

On hindsight, this post seems like a boy whining about his new responsibility and a bad idea. I guess I have to man up to see that it is a milestone everyone will experience: the ritual of watch-buying and with it, the wearer’s coming of age. But on a side note, this timepiece may be representing something entirely different: the panic buying as a response to my government’s upcoming implementation of the Goods & Service Tax (GST).