Windsurfing passion

Claudia

12 years ago

The Secret of Passion – How does one find their passion? that is Leslie’s question over at Time out for Mom this week. Weeelll, my answer: Trial and error. I know very obvious, right? But seriously, you may be born with a passion for xyz, but how would you actually know unless you tried out several things and found that particular one? Which is why I firmly believe you should try – almost – all things at least once. Some even more than once, because things and you, yourself change over time.

The most obvious change is taste. Yes, taste in people, fashion, anything, but even simpler: Taste buds. They change, believe me. I am old enough to know that for certain. Example: I have hated brussel sprouts with a passion as a kid. And spinach, too. These days, when I bake mixed veggies in the oven I have to have brussel sprouts among them. And spinach – whoa, o.k. if you really want to know. In Germany growing up, all I knew it was frozen, shredded and blended to an almost unidentifiable mix of green goo that you had to eat. Dislike. To be fair, my mom actually tried different recipes and one in particular that I ended up liking. It was still the same green goo, but it was ‘packed’ nicely. Basically a base of mashed potatoes, topped with spinach and then, like in a nest, an egg in the middle, sprinkled with bacon baked in the oven till done. Hmm, now that I think about it, I could almost try that with a few minor alterations.

Anyways, back to spinach – these days, we are eating it in salads, green smoothies (I know also kind of a green goo ;)) and sauteed and we love it. So, proof that tastes do change. And therefore it is important and it stays important through life, to try new and old things. You might be in for a surprise and all of sudden love what you hated before. And maybe, just maybe, discover that you even love ‘it’ – passionately.

So it happened for me with… windsurfing. There are no early photos (that I know of), but I did get in contact with windsurfing in my teens, quite a while ago. Back then I didn’t know it, but now I am calling it my passion. Back then I had a very scary incident happening, not really life threatening, but I was very scared, and actually have been ever since, of drifting to the open ocean with no means to come back ashore. Still, I tried it out again 10 years ago and since then every vacation is spent windsurfing. David and I have been to a lot of wonderful places, some of which are generally associated with anything but windsurfing e.g. Egypt. Do you know that I still have not seen the pyramids yet, despite having been pretty close multiple times? All I did was windsurfing.

Another passion of mine that I have known for quite a while longer – you guessed it – is photography. Taking photos has been a part of me since I was about 11 or 12 (I could look it up, but who really cares) years old. I know today that is old to get started with photography, kids get phones when they are about six, right?! But back then, I was mega proud to own a pocket camera and be able to take pictures of my very first vacation without my parents (a one week hiking trip with our swimming club). And I still have those photos in an album, probably horribly faded, but good memories. But again, photography was not an obvious art choice – if I had not tried it. I started out with drawing, painting (oil and water color) and I loved all kinds of art lessons in school (next to sports pretty much the only ones). But the one thing that really stuck was and is photography.

So, my advice to finding passion: If you see something new and touching in you in one way or the other – try it out. You never know what you might discover.