I Will Not Put My Passion In A Box For You

I’d describe myself as a pretty passionate person. I’m up by 6:30 every morning, with or without an alarm. I’m convinced that I run on solar energy because as soon as the first ray of sun touches my window, I am energized and ready to tackle the day. I climb a local mountain every weekend. When I love, it is unconditionally. When I fight, it is vehemently. When I declare my loyalty, it is fiercly.

Some people may say I’m “too much,” or that I’m “intense,” maybe that I should “chill out,” but the reality is, that sounds like a personal problem.
 
I LOVE my job. Seriously. The quote at the bottom of my email is a quote by Confucius, “Chose a job you love and never work a day in your life.” My official job title is “child and family therapist,” but what I do is so much more colorful. I am an advocate. I am a detective. I am a healer. I am an empathizer. I am a motivator. I am a solution-seeker. I am a social worker.
 
Oddly enough, when I tell people that I am a social worker, you would think that I told them that I bury dead people. I often get pitiful eyes and a strained smile with people telling me that “It takes a special person to do that.”
 
I think it takes a special person to sit at a desk and crunch numbers all day… but that’s just what I think. What my job actually takes is a passionate person. Sometimes life hands people a really crappy deck, and every day, I do my best to help my clients cope — and not only survive, but truly live by accomplishing their goals, no matter how small.
 
I am continually intrigued by people and stimulated by their conversation. I once randomly met a guy while on vacation on the streets of Savannah, GA and we ended up talking for hours about humanity, philosophy, religion, and the universe. My friends and I would have weekly heated debates about the most random things, such as “If you saw a dot that was blue, but the whole world saw it as red, is the dot red or blue?” These are things that get me fired up, energized, and gets the blood pumping through my veins. I’ve learned so much from other people during these long talks.
 
I wrote an entire book by the time I was 26 years old. (One of the beneficial side-effects of passion is perseverance.) It’s about sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is one of those things that leave a bad taste in your mouth, and makes you want to turn away. But it is something that happens far too often for me to keep silent about it, and I will continue to talk about it no matter how uncomfortable it makes you. Sorry, but the things that victims have endured trumps the mild discomfort that you have hearing about it.
 
I will get in your face if I find it necessary. A girl in my middle school gym class was getting emotionally obliterated and bullied by the “popular” guy in school, from what I understood to be no apparent reason. After he incessantly yelled at her and no one did anything about it, I finally told him to shut the hell up and if he had anything else to say, he could direct it to me. The bullying promptly ended.
 
My passion is a part of who I am. I don’t believe in living a life that leads to apathy. If that’s a life that you lead, then kudos to you, but I will stand up for what I believe in. I dance whenever the urge moves me (and that is with or without music). I enjoy skipping down long corridors. I laugh boisterously at cheesy jokes. I will not tone it down, and I will not put my passion in a box for you.
 
Whether you’re a “helicopter mom” or a “health nut,” or a “video game geek,” you do what fuels you. As long as your passion does not inhibit the wellbeing of others, who are they to judge? Let them live their mundane lives while you let your passions flow.