Ask HN: How did you connect with passionate people?
I am in my final year of high school/12th grade/6th form, and I have moved cities(and most recently, countries) and hence schools quite a bit over the years and I have met different kinds of people too. Now that school's coming to an end and I will be going off to university later in the year, I found myself wondering where do I connect with passionate people, especially at uni and later in life? I realise I am part of the much younger end of the demographic, which is part of the reason I am asking, to get some perspective and learn a lesson or two from those who are more experienced than me.
For context, I got the opportunity to attend one of the best high schools/sixth forms/colleges in the country for my last 2 years before uni, and the reason I mention that is that as a result, I am surrounded by bright people who are all excellent students and clear about what they want to do in the future, however, there's a lack of people(who I know of) that are truly passionate about what they want to do; Everyone's just pursuing their subject for the sake of it rather than genuine interest. For example, in a conversation I had with a friend, we were discussing the sorts of things we wrote in our uni applications, and he mentioned how he half-read books for the sake of mentioning them in his application and how he didn't actually find them interesting. Infact, he was a bit shocked when I said everything I mentioned in my application was genuine and that I actually found computer science and maths interesting and rewarding.
Now, I don't expect that sort of thing from people, and I realise that it's not common. But, I personally try to be as curious about life as I can, if someone has something interesting to say, even if I don't know about it(infact especially so) I listen, question and try to understand as much as I can. Again, I don't expect everyone to return the favour, and I enjoy spending time with my friend group and of course respect them a lot as well, but I love maths and computer science and I also love discussing and explaining cool ideas and thoughts I have related to them, and I find myself not having more than a couple of people who I could even bring up something (that I find)cool I recently learnt for example.
Now I don't blame someone for not being interested in listening to me explaining how <maths topic that most people would find uninteresting>, time is valuable. But it does leave me wondering, where can I find others who love to talk about their subject(not just maths or compsci, but just passionate people in general) who'd be willing to both, talk about their interests and listen to mine? Infact, if you made it this far, thanks for reading(and as you can guess, I have a tendency to talk a lot).
edited for clarity