Sunday, December 29, 2013

oh captain my captain

It’s Sunday night. And I just finished watching Dead Poets Society for the first time. Well, technically partially the second time. I remember we watched a clip of this movie in my high school history class once. Anyway, this is the message I got from the movie: find your passion, follow your passion, and yawp your passion.

Find your passion.

This first part sounds simple enough, right? Finding your passion, finding what you’re good at, finding what you enjoy. But it’s tougher than it seems. Some people may say if it’s truly your passion, then it’ll just come to you. Wrong. Most often times, the things that come to us are the things that make us comfortable, not what make us passionate. We tend to find something we are good at, something we somewhat enjoy. We get used to the thing we find, we get comfortable. As time goes on, we realize we aren’t happy with what we have. However, we also realize that we are happy enough to not change it. We are scared enough to not change it. We cozy up into these repetitive motions and become afraid to do what really makes us happy. Think about what makes you happy. Think about what gets you excited. Think about what you yearn for. Truly think about it. Once you find it, hold on to it tightly. Don’t let it go.

Follow your passion.

Don’t let go. Work for that passion like you’ve never worked for anything else. Now, finding your passion isn’t easy, and following your passion isn’t any better. Following your passion is when you get tested the most. The highs and lows. Things will come at you that will knock you down, but if you really believe in this thing, in yourself, you will thrive. Look at the challenging times as ways to improve yourself. Look at the low times as a small bump in the road. This is a magnificent journey. You will have dead ends, construction zones, traffic jams. But you will also have clear blue skies, beautiful sunsets, bright shining stars. Following your passion isn’t easy, but as long as you keep your eyes on what lies within your heart, it will be the greatest journey you’ve ever made.

Yawp your passion.

Finally, we come to yawping. Yawp your passion to everyone you know! Don’t be afraid to shout your love! We conquered fear before; don’t let it crawl back into our lives. If you are passionate about something, tell the world. Maybe they won’t be excited about the same things as you, but they will be excited for you. The first two points I mentioned aren’t easy, and having those people you’ve yawped to, those supporters, makes all the difference. Sometimes you may feel like nobody notices what you are doing or what you are striving for. Then you feel like, what’s the point? You lose ambition. You lose motivation. You lose hope. Don’t let that happen. Stay strong in your beliefs. Let those around you make those values even stronger. Let them help you follow your heart.

And who knows, maybe through all of this, you spark that light inside of someone else. You help someone find their passion. You support someone when they need it. You listen to someone’s yawping and you yawp right along with them.

Let us finally set sail, let us cross that ocean, let us tell our story, oh captain, my captain.

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