It’s not my fault, I’m just passionate!

Are you passionate about something? Were you passionate early in life and have left those passions behind to follow the hustle and bustle of life? What I found is that you can’t just shut down passions, they either take over you and consume all your time, or you mentally push them to the back of the room and don’t ever look at them again. Passions can come in both good forms and bad and there are some passions that should be stopped and professional help may be required in that area. What I am talking about here however are the positive passions that many of us have and can turn out to great things in later life. 

For me it was drawing at the age of ten and then later driving at the age of sixteen. At ten years old, it was the early seventies and Rock and Roll was in full swing. At that point I didn’t know what music was or how much it would impact my life but I did know I enjoyed what I heard, whatever it was. It would still take a couple of years to kick in but it was starting. Where it came into a central area of my life was when I went into middle school, grades six to eight. With only a record player I found the rock group Kiss. Now you may be thinking that I would go head over heels into music, but I fell into a different area, drawing. What does drawing have to do with music? It has everything to do with it, if the group you are drawing is the group Kiss. My friend and I used to draw them on every piece of paper we could find and if paper wasn’t available there was always the front of a notebook. You may be wondering why I didn’t take any art classes being so much into art, or why my parents didn’t find an art camp for me? In school the art classes were taught out of a book, something I still see being done to this day. The classes were about keeping kids busy with Paper Mâché or the like, so the thought of taking other classes wasn’t an exciting attraction. To be honest I never even suggested it to my parents, it was almost like it was my secret passion that nobody really knew about. It is very hard to run to your parents and say look at my drawing, holding up your notebook when two hours earlier you were given a detention for drawing on the cover. It was a passion I would do in my room, something I didn’t talk much about. What my parents saw were my other hobbies such as hockey, riding my bike, and listening to music with friends. My music I am sure was nothing but annoying so that certainly couldn’t be considered passion to my parents ears. In those days we didn’t understand passion to a point because the hobby was just fun, something I did without being told, something my friends and I did to waste time. I didn’t know back then that drawing a rock group on my notebook was shaping my life and my career for later life. Skip ahead 40 years and today I am a professional illustrator, I still like the rock group kiss, and I still have a deep love for music.

We often think we have to hide our passions, maybe we just don’t realize how much a passion has a hold on us. My belief is you shouldn’t try to push or holdback your passion especially for young people. Let it evolve on its own, some fizzle, some take centre stage, either way you will wake up and realize that your passion played a role in your life. It may just take 40 years!

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is an entrepreneur, artist, author, and speaker. More information can be found on his website at www.outridgeenterprises.ca