Finding Your Passion
by Nancy Engle, 2008, Revised January 2010
©2008, 2010, Nancy Engle, All Rights Reserved

"Passion is the element in which we live . . . "
Lord Byron (1788-1824)

We all want to be passionate about something, but often don't know what it is we're passionate about, or if we do know, we don't always know how to express it.

I enjoy writing stories and creating characters out of people I know and events that I've either experienced or read about. Recently I've been struggling with finding my voice in my writing. I recently completed a ten day boot camp for writers where each day for ten days the students are given a lead line or prompt and they have to write one thousand words in any genre. Each day I was completing the exercise, but none of the work was really feeling right until days eight and nine. But I still wasn't sure why I felt good about those particular pieces.

On day ten I was doing my morning routine of self reflection. The theme was passion and I read the above quote by Lord Byron. I have been struggling with finding passion in my writing and so used that theme to review the works of the past nine days. Then it hit me. The pieces I really enjoyed writing were a combination of memoir, historical fact, and fiction. I thought back to the last boot camp writing class. I knew that I enjoyed writing most of those pieces and took another look. I realized that they all contained those three elements.

As I settled into that July 2008 boot camp writing class my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given about two weeks to live. Myself and all of my siblings had gathered together to be with her. You might think that an odd time to produce some of my most fun pieces, but that's precisely what happened. It was because we were all gathered in my mother's room and reminiscing about the things that happened during our lives. We all told funny stories and although mom was unresponsive I knew she could hear us. Those were the things I wrote about and had fun with.

One of my passions has always been researching my family history. My parents and other relatives told us lots of stories about our ancestors and during my research I have accumulated a lot of information both personal and historical.

What I'm realizing is that it's not always the extraordinary things we experience in our lives that shape who we are, but the ordinary every day task of living. It took me many years to realize what I really enjoyed. Had I been listening to my inner voice, which by this time was shouting, I might have come to that realization a long time ago. Oh well, better late than never. 

As I look back I remember thinking on many occasions that I should write about my family.  But did I pay attention? No, I ignored that inner voice and tried to write about things I thought I was supposed to write about. No matter what it is you're doing, make a habit of paying attention to that inner voice and save yourself a lot of time and aggravation.
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© 2008, 2010, Nancy Engle, All Rights Reserved