Passion is Paramount

I am one of the lucky few who doesn't run short of passions in life. My mom couldn't afford to sign me up for dance or music lessons like a lot of little girls, but I found passion in school.  I was a reader who loved books more than playing on the playground.  I still get butterflies in my stomach once a year when I have free reign in the bookstore to choose every book under the sun I want for Christmas.

By the time I turned 13, I'd really missed the boat on friends.  I'd gone through some rough experiences like getting beat up a few times, and definitely being ostracized by the "cool kids."  I felt like a reject, doomed to be on the outside forever.  I joined Sea Cadets to relieve pressure from home to get involved it in.  My grandpa had worked within the organization for years.  He was a sailor and fully expected me to take up the sport when I joined.  I guess my stubborn sentiments were present even then because all I wanted to do was dig my heels in and hate the weekly parade nights, hate the people I met there, and hate going away to summer camp.

Somehow, sometime during my second year I started to look forward to those weekly meetings, and got excited when I thought about going away to my first sailing camp.  I didn't know it at the time, but this was the start of defining my biggest passion.

Three and four years passed and I realized that I loved being a part of Sea Cadets not because it was a para-military organization at all, but because people liked me in that world.  I wasn't an outcast--I was on the inside, in fact I was at the centre of my own circle of sailing friends.  We went to summer camp together for only two summers but that time forged some wonderful, critical friendships.

Sailing and my lake friends became my life.  I loved how it felt to arrive at the lake (fashionably late) and have Jessie or Heather run up and give me a big hug.  It was the first time anyone showed their appreciation of me and their excitement about me even being there.  So often I clinged to the edge of social circles, frequently (or conveniently) left off the guest list for sleep overs or parties only to hear all about it on Monday as everyone else excitedly chirped about what happened or how exiciting it was.

The lake weekends would always end and I had to return to the fringes of friends I stuck with so I wouldn't be entirely alone at lunch.

In school these days I'm taught about how important it is that you love your business idea so much that you will still love it when you have no money, and when times are hard.  I think that the ability to be passionate in what you do with your time makes your experience at work.  Passionate people care about what they do and seem obligated internally to seek out work that makes them happy, no matter the cost.  That's why I'm here, back at post-secondary and taking business.  I'm trying to find a new passion within business so I can be as happy at work as I am to be sailing.