Hey, guys – welcome back to TNTH.
Whoa, a Monday post?! I know, since when? I wanted to write and publish this post at the start of the week as a reminder to all of you (and myself) that no matter how things end up going, you still have passion doing it.
I say things after watching a middle school/high school talent show on Friday. My partner is a dance teacher at a school in NYC and for the last couple of years he’s been there, he has taught a group of girls that call themselves “The Eliminators.” For the last month and a half, I’ve been a witness to my partner’s hard work and dedication towards this show and the competition they went to literally an hour before the talent show started. They were the last to perform for the evening; I could tell my partner was extremely nervous for them to perform and execute this dance well.
The group danced in a way I never saw them dance before, to be honest. This was my first time seeing them in person dancing, but by judging the videos I was sent of their last performances, these girls really outdid themselves. While they were dancing, I noticed my partner cheering his group on in the middle of the auditorium, hyping them up as they danced with the biggest smile on his face. I saw it in his face. I saw it in his nerves, his composure, and his body language. I saw how passion really looked like.
I’ve always described my partner to be one of the most passionate people I’ve ever met. Ever since we met back in high-school, he always worked hard on the things he was passionate about the most; one of those things being dance. He had his own dance group while in high-school called “Bad Intentionz”, and they were known to shut the place down whenever they performed at competitions and talent shows. I know my partner’s work ethnic resembles my own, but he definitely executes it much better than I do.
Because he has passion.
How does this all come together? I would consider myself to have a lot of passion. In a sense, I’m a huge dreamer; I always look towards the future and see all of the things I want to do by the time I get there. I had specific dreams of doing something that would challenge me my last two years of being a grad student. I wanted to prove myself wrong and be that honors student I always knew I was capable of. I never got there and granted, many other people are living what was once my dream. Yes, it’s extremely disheartening and discouraging.
I am currently in the final stage before submitting my thesis officially for evaluation. For once in a really long time, I’ve felt confident in what I was writing about and for once I felt like I was sharing something with people that needed to be said. But then I began to see those around me begin to get what I wanted: the praise upon their work, the extraordinary results, and here I am feeling discouraged. I started to get discouraged because this feeling of there being other people better than me has always been a problem of mine. I feel like there are always going to be people who do certain things better than me, and in the end, I let it get to me. I accept a mediocre performance on my behalf just because I gave up ages before I even got the chance to improve myself. I always knew I had the passion for the things I do, but I always felt like the passion I was feeling never registered into the projects I was passionate about. And it’s frustrating, to say the least.
But Friday, I saw a side of passion I never saw before. Now it’s one thing to be hyped up and energetic, but to be all of that and still proud of your result is something I never got to experience myself.
I saw my partner put his blood, sweat, and tears into that dance. I saw him work hours on hours doing what he loves and the end product showed. Did he care about if any of his dancers made minor mistakes? Did he care that there is always someone out there who is better than him and his dancers? Did he care about anything else that day besides his dance group? The answer’s no.
At the end of the day, those who watched, myself included, felt the passion. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who was a well-trained performer and who was just doing it for fun. What matters is that there was nothing but passion involved, and because that was so visible on (and off) stage, many people congratulated him and his dance group afterward.
At the end of the day, I know I have the passion for my own projects. I know that what I’m currently doing for my MA Thesis is hard-work and passion for something that I love. Of course, I want to be awarded honors for my thesis. I want the committee to read my thesis and see that I’m a good writer. It’s a great thought to have, but I realized that at the end of the day, I want the committee to see that this paper is strictly 100% me. My blood, sweat, and tears are in this paper. That is paper isn’t something I’m just submitting for graduation. I want them to see the passion behind this paper, and I know it’s visible.
Anyone can go day by day doing things just to get them done and do it all over again the next day. Without passion, what you do will have no soul in it. It won’t be an accurate representation of who you are as a unique individual. No matter what you’re passionate about, it should always be present while doing it. Yeah, you’ll hit some bumpy roads getting to where you want to be, but I will always believe that passion conquers all. People admire the beauty of technique, but people will always remember the passion behind the entire thing.
And all it took was a three and a half minute dance to show me all of that.
– Liz. (:
Letters From Liz. 