Why College Students Should Pursue Passion Projects

Because if not now, when? How I conducted a floral arrangement class with no professional experience.

How do you land yourself an internship? What leadership roles can you run for? Are there any research projects that you can join? Career advisors never seem to tire of stressing the importance of packing your resumes with a series of achievements to impress employers. However, the mindless, utilitarian pursuit motivated purely by career-building can be numbing and even soul-crushing.

I started college a year ago and career talks featured significantly in my first year. One thing that came up often is the need to accumulate the relevant experience. If you find yourself as hopelessly lost as I am on what profession and industry you foresee yourself working in, this process can be overwhelming.

To accrue the ‘relevant experience’ and to expand my portfolio, there are a few things that I consider in deciding my commitments:

• Will I be able to contribute my one hundred percent?
• Do I have the time to take on this responsibility? The last thing I would want is to renege on my promises to the rest of the team.
• What skills will I acquire from participating in this activity? Do they strengthen/demonstrate/complement/supplement/diversify my existing skillsets?
• Will I enjoy myself or will this activity be another painful chore that I put myself through in college?

Building a portfolio is important but I believe that college would be an utter bore if all I do is curate the ‘gold standard’ of resumes for myself.

My Passion in Floral Arrangements

I am passionate about floral arrangements and it brings me great joy to work with flowers. I could spend hours fixing up an arrangement, going through cycles of putting them together and pulling them apart till I am satisfied.

I never had professional training nor did I approach my florist friends to teach me their craft. Instead, I analyzed pictures of flower arrangements before experimenting with trial and error. It was a lengthier process compared to Googling for floral arrangement techniques, or even signing up for workshops. However, I derived satisfaction in trying (and failing most of the time) to figure out my style.

Don’t Let Opportunities Walk on By

I had only been a freshman for a month before I was asked to consider running floral arrangement workshops for my peers. At the time, I was pleasantly surprised and I hesitated because who was I to instruct people on how to arrange flowers? I have never worked with a florist. I have never had professional training. Heck, I have never even watched a YouTube tutorial on floral arrangements!

After mulling over it for a week, I decided to bide my time without shutting off the opportunity. I applied to join the Cultural Arts Directorate, a subcommittee that organizes activities promoting culture and the arts within the college. Since I was interested in conducting a workshop but had no inkling of how things would pan out, being in the committee overseeing these things enabled me to learn the administrative processes of the college.

Of course, not everyone would be able to hold off on opportunities the way I did. In most instances, opportunities are time-sensitive and if you do not accept them right then and there, they are gone forever. My advice would be to take a leap of faith and push the boundaries of your comfort zone while pursuing a passion project. By stepping into the unknown, there are valuable skills and experiences to acquire, and these can lead to personal development and revelations as well.

Conducting My First Floral Workshop!

As a member of the Cultural Arts Directorate, I was named one of two Project Directors for Art Fortnight, two weeks of arts-related activities. This project was strategically allocated to me in the hopes that I would conduct a floral arrangement workshop as part of Art Fortnight.

Leading up to Art Fortnight, I busied myself recruiting stakeholders while remaining undecided about whether to offer a class on floral arrangements. I was uncomfortable with marketing my segment as a ‘workshop’ because it sounded as if I was overpromising and overselling my class. I was unwilling to give participants the impression that they were learning from a professional when I most definitely am not a subject matter expert.

Eventually, I came up with a simple solution. Instead of marketing my class as a ‘workshop’, I characterized the class as a ‘floral jam’. ‘Floral Jam’ was inspired by an art jam where participants are provided with the materials and the equipment needed to paint on canvas. The goal was to let the participants’ creative juices flow. In other words, my role was to guide and to enable, less to instruct.

Despite my initial self-doubt, ‘Floral Jam’ turned out to be a success with signups filling up within forty-eight hours. Here is what one of the participants had to say:

Ming Qian was very knowledgable and shared with us all the tips and tricks he picked up on his own and we all went home with a beautiful floral arrangement each, to decorate our rooms with. The experience itself was quite therapeutic and required just the right amount of focus and creativity to keep me in the moment and clear my mind from everything else.

I never expected ‘Floral Jam’ to be as well-received as it eventually was. Never in my wildest imaginations would I have ever expected to host a floral arrangement class. Flowers have been my passion for two years now and I am glad that I took a chance on myself and worked around my concerns to bring this project to fruition.

It’s About How You Sell Yourself

You may be wondering, how would a passion project such as ‘Floral Jam’ fit within your experiences? Well, I would argue that it is how you sell yourself. For instance, ‘Floral Jam’ was not merely about floral arrangements. ‘Floral Jam’ involved working within a tight budget, negotiating with suppliers, designing publicity materials, and public speaking. As a student, your resources are limited. Consequently, most of the logistical and manpower requirements for passion projects such as ‘Floral Jam’ will have to be fulfilled by you and nobody else.

No matter what project you take on, there will always be a set of skills that you will need. Some of these skills may require you to learn on the job and to tackle problems as they arise. These are important skills and experiences that you may never acquire if you choose to stay within your comfort zone.

If Not Now, When?

The college experience offers infinite opportunities but you have to be ready to seek and to seize them as they appear. If you have a passion project you want to pursue in college, search for the resources you will need and talk to experienced seniors who know the system better than you do. When there is a will, there is always a way.

College is also a safe harbor for you to experiment, to test your boundaries, and most importantly, to make mistakes. It is the perfect opportunity to start a passion project. If you do not check that item off your bucket list now, when will you ever find the time to do so? Are you intending to procrastinate on your passion till retirement?

To clarify, I am not claiming that you should be devoting all of your time to pursuing a passion project. In college, you are likely to participate in multiple committees or projects simultaneously. If so, it cannot hurt for one of these commitments to be a passion project that you would find joy working on. Once I decided to proceed with ‘Floral Jam’, I was devoted to its success while supporting my peers who came on board to organize events for Art Fortnight (I was also the Project Director for the overarching event that ‘Floral Jam’ was a part of).

I took a while to muster the courage to make ‘Floral Jam’ a reality, but that does not have to be you. Most opportunities will not sit still while waiting for you to seize them. To all college students, be brave and start a passion project now while you are in a safe environment. As Primo Levi would say, “Se non ora, quando?” If not now, when?