Every self-help book, career podcast, or motivational talk seems to echo one question: โWhatโs your passion?โ
For the longest time, that question made me feel uneasy. I admired people who could point to a single defining passion: dancing, painting, entrepreneurship and say, โThis is what Iโm meant to do.โ
But for me? It wasnโt that clear. I tried different roles, pursued different goals, but something always felt incomplete. Like I was solving a puzzle with one missing piece.
Then I came across a line in a book that said: โIf you canโt find your passion, think back to what you enjoyed as a child.โ
And that one sentence changed everything.
I thought back to my school days, not expecting much and suddenly, it hit me. I used to love solving puzzles. Word games, logic problems, Sudoku anything that challenged my brain felt like an adventure. I wasnโt into painting or music, but I could spend hours untangling numbers and clues. And above all, I genuinely enjoyed mathematics. It wasnโt just a subject for me; it was a source of calm. Solving math problems made me feel grounded, capable, and focused.
And thatโs when it all clicked.
The reason I was feeling unfulfilled in my previous career wasnโt about the job title or the industry, it was because I had drifted away from the kind of work that brought me joy and mental stimulation. The work no longer fed my curiosity or gave me that deep, satisfying feeling of solving something meaningful. So, I made a change.
Today, working with data and it feels like Iโve come full circle. In data science and analytics, I get to solve puzzles. I dig into messy data, search for hidden patterns, build models, test hypotheses, and translate numbers into stories. Itโs challenging, complex, creative and most of all, it feels like home.
What I used to love as a child has quietly become the core of my career. And that realization made me proud of the journey, the risks, and the rediscovery.
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