After many years working in the education sector, I have witnessed countless cases of people interrupting their studies to pursue their passion but failing, so they had to return to continue their studies.

There are friends who are struggling, discouraged, drop out of school, and cannot find their own direction.

Many people, including young people, see passion as a master key that can open all doors, leading them to the pinnacle of their career. But realistically, passion is one of the extremely dangerous interference factors on the journey to success, especially when you choose to stop studying to pursue it fully.

When I teach, I meet not only new students but also final year students who have decided to stop studying to pursue their passion. A few years ago, when I was giving psychological counseling to students, I met a third year civil law student who was thinking of stopping because he wanted to become a photographer. He just wanted to focus on traveling and finding unique angles in nature.

Listening to your concerns, I suggest that you have gone through 3/4 of the learning journey, stopping means you have to choose, either continue the journey you are on, or consider the past three years as meaningless time.

The conversation gently said that maybe you feel that the knowledge you are learning is not practical, but clearly this is the perfect backup plan so that you still have the opportunity to experience it again if unfortunately you are not successful with your passion.

If you are determined to follow your passion, think seriously about the risks before reaching success. After a period of contemplation, this person decided to pursue his studies and graduated on time.

One day, by chance, I met you again at the law office as a consultant. Recognizing me, you told me that after two years of continuous failure with your dream of becoming a professional photographer, even going into debt because of the studio, you decided to return to the law profession.

You said you were grateful for my advice years ago, you now have a backup degree to get back on track with your life.

Learning is a lifelong story, even without going to school, everyone can still continue to pursue their passion for learning.

Just study what you like, just know how to manage your time. That means if you have passion, you can absolutely maintain your studies, do research by yourself when you have time or flexibly study in one or two days so that you can work the rest of the week and accumulate knowledge for your passion.

Instead of pursuing your passion, each of you should ask yourself: What if I fail? What will I lose? Have I equipped myself with knowledge for the new field of study? What will I do to support myself before accumulating enough knowledge?...

Only when you find answers to those questions, then you can consider and determine the right direction for yourself.