I have always had a deep love of books and have read most anything I could find no matter what the subject. I have always enjoyed theater and have rarely missed the chance to see any show. I also have enjoyed writing, and expressing myself in artistic ways. However, somewhere along my journey, I stopped pursuing the creative side of my life. I went the safe, predictable, practical route. I was an accounting major. I earned my Masters in Business Administration. I became a Certified Public Accountant. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I have, in fact, made a very good living being Mr. Accountant, and if you have read any of my misadventures on this blog, you know that my life has been full of excitement and fun. But what it has not been full of is a creative outlet, and until I started this blog, I had no idea that it was lacking.
As a Governor's Scholar in 1988, I spent the summer at Centre College as a Drama major. It was probably the best summer of my life. However, after graduating high school, I never even auditioned for a role in another play. I was, however, president of the accounting club. Safe over Creative.
As a sophomore in college, I considered having two majors: Accounting and English. I finally decided the two were too far apart on the spectrum. One was a responsible, career-orientated major; the other, well, "what does one even do with an English major?" was what I asked myself. I decided, instead, to get another business degree: Hotel, Restaurant, & Tourism Administration. Safe over Creative.
Even before graduating from graduate school, I considered interviewing with the Peace Corp. But then, with the help of my parents, I was reminded that I had spent a ton of money and had a mound of student loan debt in my quest for my MBA, so why would I go to all that trouble just to graduate and then go off to some third world country and work for no pay for two years? Safe Over Creative.
With the help of my good corporate buddies at ACS, who threw me out into the unemployment line during the biggest recession of my lifetime, I was finally able to have some time as an adult to work on being creative, and what I found out totally shocked me. I not only love writing, observing people and situations, telling stories, and making people laugh, I truly have a passion for it. When I write, I feel happy down to my toes. When I am not writing, or just going through my day to day activities, I am still thinking about writing my next story or how I could use what just happened in a blog. I can not believe that at the ripe ol' age of ALMOST 40, I have discovered something that makes so happy to do. I have had a true "Aha Moment." My next step is the process of going through my blogs and developing many of them into proper short stories and essays. Sure, I am not getting paid for doing this, but you have to start somewhere, right?! And who knows what will happen down the road. If I don't do it, I will never know.
So, why am I am babbling about this to you? Because I suspect that there are a lot of you out there just like me. You have for whatever reason put aside your passion. Life came along. Jobs, kids, spouses, divorces. There is always something in the way. But, I want to encourage each of you to think a little bit about what it is that you have a passion for, or that you used to have a passion for, and then ask yourself if you still participate in that activity. Do you still feed the passion or have you, like me, taken the safe route and let it dry up and wither? It can still be revived. Believe me, it doesn't take much. A simple blog did it for me.
In the words of Joseph Campbell, "Follow your bliss."
The light! Walk toward the light!
ReplyDelete(In other words, I'm glad you're finally realizing what I've been telling you all along. You are a fabulous writer and a magnificent storyteller. Which is exactly what you should be doing. You ARE the next David Sedaris!!!)