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I’D LOVE TO…
This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!
We talk a lot about our passions, but many times that’s all it is. Talk. And talking can get tiring. Hell, even thinking about the things we are passionate about can get tiring, because they’re never put into action. And action from passion is what makes us come alive.
The following is a touching story about Shana Manuel, and the action behind her passion. Before Shana started her blog, Culture Weekend, she had a passion for discovering international culture within local communities, and didn’t quite know how to make a career out of it. Like myself, she had to take a moment to reflect on what made her truly happy, bite the bullet and go for it.
So like the rest of us, she started a blog. Culture Weekend revolves around Shana’s diverse 48-hour ‘staycations’ in New York, as she explores dozens of international places to ‘travel’ to all within her local community. It’s quite the trip! And I’ve never read anything like it. She writes all about her explorations and the dozens of cultural things you can do within a single local community. It’s cool to see how much culture you can absorb in one place without having to pay hundreds of dollars for an international flight, if you know what I mean. (They should build an Australia in L.A.).
I’m not sure if you’re headed out to New York any time soon, but this gal is the expert on cultural places to visit. I really had no idea how diverse New York was, and I love discovering unique, niche blogs like this that keep me knee-deep in new and useful information.
Here’s what she had to say. (Some of my favorite lines are bolded for emphasis.)
Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?
Prior to blogging, I had no idea how to apply my interests in exploring international cultures into a tangible job. One day, after reflecting over the reasons why I picked up and moved to New York after completing my graduate studies in North Carolina, it hit me. I moved to New York for the area’s rich cultural diversity; however, after living here for several years, all I had done was drown out my true passions with work in an industry that wasn’t the best fit for me. Following many personal challenges, I was forced to question my path in life. Ultimately, this reflection led me back to my true passion, which I had set aside on a shelf for years and allowed to collect dust. Blogging enables me to share my passion for exploring international culture within local communities in a way that no other platform can. Blogging is my primary outlet for creativity.
Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?
After leaving the corporate world and staying at home with my son, I felt off schedule. I missed having work-related deadlines and assignments outside of naps, extracurricular activities for the kids, feedings and diaper changes. Blogging has given my life the structure I crave. Blogging helps me to feel alive again, dedicated to a cause. I treat my blog and the work that goes into it from coding, social media, emails, classes, and conferences as a real job!
Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?
Blogging has me thinking more from an entrepreneurial perspective. I’ve recently turned my blog into a business and work daily to grow it into an authoritative site for information on all things international and local!
Thank you so much for being a part of my series, Shana! It’s been a pleasure sharing your extremely unique passion with my readers. 
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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks! See all Passion Series posts >>
A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed for the very first time for being myself. You know how people get interviewed for being singers or actresses? I got interviewed for being a blogger on a mission. In so doing, I learned a valuable lesson that I thought you would find interesting, and perhaps could also learn from as you scoot on down your own paths of love, awesomeness, and passion.
I’ll cut right to the chase–when someone interviews you for being awesome, make sure you’ve actually done something awesome. In the interview below, blogger Chris Coleman interviewed me for his Champion Connections series. I featured him in my Passion Series not too long ago, so I decided to return the favor. His series focuses on people who are working towards bringing great things to the world, and to inspire hope and motivation into anyone seriously considering following their dreams. Naturally, when he asked to interview me I thought, what the hell am I going to say? I haven’t done anything.
So in the 37 minutes below, I talk a lot about writing, passion, and what I want to bring to the world, and that’s about it. I think I did touch a bit on my Passion Series, but by the end of the interview, I was left feeling both sort of awesome (cause woah cool my first interview), and sort of like a failure. Failure is a strong word here, I know. But I was feeling a bit like I wasn’t being interviewed for doing anything special, and half expected a stranger to comment on the video with, “Why was this girl even interviewed? She hasn’t done anything.” (This was more an issue with myself, not the actual interview, or the fantastic interviewer, or the awesome series).
This, my friends, is the lesson I learned: sometimes, it takes 37 minutes of talking about yourself to realize you don’t have anything important to say. Plain and simple. It really brought me back to the reality that while I have my hopes, passions, and dreams…I haven’t really done anything this year that’s noteworthy. Last year was cool because I was plugging away at business school applications, but since I’ve applied, I feel like my motivation to actually finish something has been stagnant. Sure I’ve been working hard in my little online classes on the side, but I haven’t put things I’ve learned to any kind of use, and if you’re learning without doing you’re not really learning are you? Or maybe you are, but the things you learn are quickly forgotten.
The point of all of this sort of self-deprecating talk isn’t to whine or fish for some kind of support. The point is that every day there are valuable lessons to be learned. We throw ourselves headlong into foreign situations and we come out with perspective, and that’s what this is. Interviews in general teach you a lot about your past accomplishments, your present capabilities, and how people perceive you. They are like public moments of reflection and introspection. And like all the lessons life has taught me over the years, I am taking this one with a grain of salt and a stiff tequila shot. This interview was my mirror. I was afforded a moment to stare directly at my reflection, and realize that I’m not quite doing the best that I can, and that I have let my goals choke in the smoke that has billowed over my future as I wait to hear back from USC’s MBA program. I’ve been sort of in limbo, and I need to fight my way ’round it.
Have you ever been taught a lesson like this from an interview? I’d be anxious to hear if anyone else has experienced something like this. I’m so grateful to be alive and to be able to have the space and time to work on the side projects I’ve laid out for myself each evening, but I’m also feeling like a rusty buoy, bobbing in the sea while all the waves rush all rapid and crazily past me. That’s pretty cliche sounding, but in the moment, it was the best I could come up with.
If you’ve got 37 minutes to spare, (or maybe just a few), the interview is below. While I don’t feel like I portrayed myself in the best way, I do feel SO grateful that I had the opportunity to be interviewed, and that I did something that sort of scared me.
This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!
The lovely moments I have been afforded, I tell you. I’ve just had the pleasure of reading one of the sweetest blogs, and connecting with one of the sweetest bloggers via email. Her name is Simone Graham, and she’s from New Zealand. NEW ZEALAND. I know, so close to Australia right? Well, geographically I’m not sure how close, but I’ve just returned from visiting Sydney and Brisbane not two weeks ago, so the fact that she’s from near there leaves a warm and fuzzy imprint on my heart.
So let’s talk about Simone, because you’ll want to get to know her and her blog, Great Fun 4 Kids, believe me. She’s a mum of three, who loves planning kids parties, and putting her creative skills to good use in all sorts of ways. Now I know there are a ton of family blogs out there, but this one is one of the loveliest I’ve seen. I’m a sucker for good design, as I’ve said in the past, as well as the clean way pictures, text, and buttons all flow together. Also, the topics she writes about are both insightful and comedic, as she discusses her children (who all have nicknames, so it reads like a story would) and past experiences with depression.
Next, what really got me interested was her Blog Design Webshop, where she sells her services helping you design buttons and headers for your blog. There are a lot of web designers out there sure, but actually trying to hire one is intimidating–at least for me. So the fact that I can just pop on over to her site and select a service makes it painfully easy to accomplish something I’ve always felt was daunting. Add to that she has a whole section dedicated to parties for kids–including invitations designed by her that you can print out for free!
Thank you so much for contacting me for this series Simone! What a pleasure. Here’s what she had to say.
Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?
Since I began blogging nearly five years ago, I have rediscovered my love of writing (and begun writing for Parenting magazine in NZ); it has also given me a creative outlet and a forum to share my ideas. Through this I have created two small businesses (blog design and party printables) and can work from home while my kids are in school. I love planning kids birthday parties and sharing my ideas, how to’s and free printables on my blog. With three kids who have birthdays conveniently spread throughout the year, there’s always a party in the wind. I have a Party Index Page on the blog where all the ideas and tutorials are collected for people to find. I have also built connections with a network of amazing women around the world.
Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?
Through blogging I was able to become a feature writer for my favorite parenting magazine (the Editor came to interview me about my blog and I asked to write for them; she said yes. This would have never happened without my blog)
Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?
Blogging helps you find the beautiful and the interesting in the mundane of everydayness. It also helps you focus on deliberately looking for the good in things. I have recently completed a two-week blog series on Gratitude (The Grateful Project) and blogging it every day has helped me “stay the course”. Lastly, for the past ten years I have battled depression and anxiety, which I share about openly on my blog and have just recently been diagnosed with dyslexia – a dyslexic writer – only me! What can I say – I love blogging for so many reasons.
I am thrilled that Simone has been a part of this series, and am so happy to have made her acquaintance from so far away. Thanks for reading, and if you’re up for a laugh, and want to hear how New Zealanders like Simone talk (kiwis), give this video a quick watch. It had me in hysterics. Adorable.
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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!
See all Passion Series posts >>
I heard back from USC. I’m still on the wait list.
It’s a bit stressful without being actually stressful. I know about the stress, because I can think, but I don’t feel it. I received an email from the admission’s office stating that they were going to review wait listed applications every week, but basically they have to wait to see how many students show up for class the first week before determining if they have room for me.
The stressful part is getting accepted after class has already started. I applied for financial aid, but I have not taken any further steps because I wasn’t sure of my admission status. Funding isn’t the only issue though. If I’m not accepted until after the first week, that would mean missing the first day of my first class, a class I haven’t even selected yet.
But it’s good. Whatever this life is, it’s good. I’m going to email the Financial Aid office and figure out what my next step would be if I were accepted, that way I know exactly what to do if I am accepted. I’d need to figure out what classes to start out with, and what books to buy too. The upside is that I will only be taking one class to start, so it’s not like I have 4 classes of catch-up work to do. And if I’m not mistaken, I think the night classes meet once a week, so that shouldn’t add too much stress.
Like I said, I see the stress in my head when I talk about it, but it’s not really affecting me tonight because it still seems so up in the air and far away. Maybe because I’ve been living in this fairy tale state of mind lately, where everything that breathes is precious and I’m staring at birds all day. If there’s one thing we should do more often, I’d say it’s staring at birds. They don’t have much of an opinion on financial aid. Their only concern is the fragile thing they’re sitting on in a given moment, and what part of their feathers they’d like to dive their beaks into. There’s a lot to be envied in simple thought like that.
On a completely unrelated note, last night the Poltergeist was on TV. Instead of scaring me to shreds, it taught me a nice little thing.
“Nothing really dies. Like a caterpillar that becomes a butterfly, death only transforms us into another state of being.”
I changed the channel shortly after anyway. No sense in sticking around for the ghostly parts. But that quote made me wonder who the hell told us death was ever a bad thing in the first place. Was there someone responsible for this, like one single person who told the mother of the first person to die that the physical world was all that existed and to leave it was a horribly bad thing? Or is death one of those things that’s only bad because people tell you it’s bad, but if you think it’s not, then it’s really not. Kind of like when people say fear is an option, or that things like self-sabotage only exist because we let them.
I think it would make a good documentary, death. Or at the very least a good one hour special on the history channel.
There’s no point here.
I do apologize for that. If you’re looking for something to blame besides me, blame the portable PC. There’s probably a direct correlation between blogging in bed and never having a point to anything you write. Or anything you say for that matter. Must be the horizontal position, too much blood rushing to the head. I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t made my posts a lot fucking weirder.
But I’d also be lying if I said weird didn’t live here.
Have a lovely Tuesday.
Time is running out, and that’s a shame. The trick is, knowing whether or not to let that bother you. I thought I had nothing to say tonight, as I watched episode after episode of Law and Order, while intermittently reading a few pages in Beyond Genius, Innovation, and Luck, by J. Allan McCarthy. But then I remembered a quote by Henry David Thoreau. It was
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
It got me thinking. I had the itch to blog tonight, but after I opened up my laptop, I realized I didn’t really have anything profound to say, nor did I really feel like thinking of some lesson I learned in the past few days. But something about that quote got me thinking about having the chance to do things, and if I somehow never had the chance to blog again after this night, what would I want my last blog post to say? That sounds a bit morbid I know, but seeing as how I’m just visiting this planet for a few years as a precious human, I may as well come to the cold reality that time is, in fact, running out, and I shouldn’t let things like laziness or statements like “what do I have to offer” get in the way of art, creativity, and mindless thought.
And that is what this blog feels like tonight, as I sit here in bed, staring at my little wall decal and lights pictured here. It feels like mindless thought, like play, and like nothing is required here except for love, freedom of expression, and creativity. And since time is in fact running out (not really in a panicky kind of way), I don’t ever want to feel like I finished this visit without acting upon playful thoughts when I felt them. I don’t want to feel like this blog is a chore, or that the content marketers are telling me I’m ‘doing it wrong’ or without some kind of strategy. I like just being able to have a simple, elegant place to place my pictures and feelings. It’s like having a diary but it’s kind of like a cool project you can show the world, and maybe some people can learn from it or find the inspiration to work on something lovely.
Plenty of lessons were learned this week, and I have a few things I want to share with you regarding my USC wait list status. But it’s Friday night and we’ve all had a helluva week. Let’s enjoy the midnight crickets, warm blankets, clean water, and the everything that we are.
This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!
This week I’m featuring a freelance writer and HR professional who combines the two professions in the most unexpectedly hysterical ways in her blog, Musings. I can’t tell you how happy I am that she somehow stumbled upon my Passion Series via Linkedin. I never took an interest in HR, but after just reading this hysterical post called Five Recognition Awards Your Employees Will REALLY Appreciate, I will definitely be returning. I’m trying to get into business school here, and if Ms. Spraggins can make HR sound entertaining? I will be her number one fan.
Her blog is a mix of personal and professional expression of who she is as a wife, mother, sister, you name it. And I love how dedicated she is to it. Go take a quick look at the sidebar of her blog to see all of the posts she’s written. I’m talking like, sometimes 30 a month. Now THAT is something to work towards! And they’re not like short, whatever posts. They offer opinion, knowledge, and experience from the perspective of an HR professional, as well as a creative writer.
Here’s what she had to say.
Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?
Absolutely. Blogging has opened up a whole new world of ideas and people! I’ve met so many interesting people through blogging, and their creativity fuels my creativity. Emotionally, blogging has helped me to appreciate my sensitive nature and even some of my foibles, because exposing all that informs my voice and point-of-view and helps me connect to readers. Also, blogging makes hurtful and painful experiences a blessing–something to write about! AND, blogging gives me an anonymous way to express my emotions by “telling” people things I can’t say to them face to face–like you’re a terrible boss, a selfish friend, an all-around-jerk, or the life of my life.
Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?
Yes. Blogging has allowed me to achieve the goal of “writer.” In my previous corporate life I wrote all the time and was recognized as “having good writing skills.” But now I’M A WRITER. Fabulous!
Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?
In a roundabout way, yes. Reader RESPONSE motivates me to keep writing (and I’m passionate about writing.) While in many ways the act of writing is its own reward, I blog (as opposed to keeping a private journal) because I like to connect with others (including other WRITERS) through writing.
I feel the exact same way. Hearing from people who actually read and respond to what you write about, is a pretty awesome feeling, because it makes you feel like what you have to say is being heard. Crystal, if you’re reading this, I can’t thank you enough for stopping by. Keep doing what you do!
This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!
See all Passion Series posts >>
Photo credit: Michael Lipsey
Is it not the most beautiful feeling to come home from a busy day at work in your own car, to pull up in a parking spot in front of your own apartment, to walk into your very own studio, and clean it up a bit. Is it not the most beautiful feeling, to lovingly carry down your dirty laundry, fit the little coins into the washer slots and listen to the water rush over your very own clothes.
Last night I sweat over a Swiffer sweeper, pushing it forward and back, compulsively sweeping and swiffing every inch of my studio. I felt little beads of sweat trickle down the back of my neck and down my chest, and lovingly wiped the dust from my counter tops, the tiles in my bathroom, and the dust from my window sills. They were indicators of my absence.
When I see my little microwave atop my fridge, sometimes I want to cry. My coffee maker, my sugar, my too-large dish rack fitting lopsided in my little sink. How can life be this neat, this tidy, this perfect? I always want to remember this time in my life, when I had a decently paying full-time job, a loving boyfriend, a functioning car, and a tidy little studio to come home to and light a candle, turn on the box fan, and listen to it whirr and whirr. When I take a look around at my life, when I really stop and just listen to it, it is absolutely perfect.
I realized last night that all along, life has foolishly led me to believe in the phrase “I will be happy when…” Everything is always “I will be happy when…” and “I can’t wait until…”
But when I think about that ‘one day’ when I will be ‘happy’, when I really think about it, it doesn’t seem real. When I think about me in the future and what I’ll be doing, and how anxious I am about getting to that place, wherever it is….in that place I am always happy. I am always happy. And in the present, when I’m thinking of my future, I am always unhappy.
But how can that be? How can I be unhappy? I’ve been given the privilege of life, of existence, and I’m constantly thinking about some fantasy place in the future that doesn’t exist? What’s happening right now, all around me? How often did I dream about finding the perfect boyfriend at 18? How often did I dream about finding a full-time job that wasn’t in a huge corporate office building? And for how long did I sit in that old apartment with my roommate, dreaming of the day when I would find the perfect studio apartment to call my own?
I’ve got it. I’ve got it all. Do you realize what is happening right now? I’m freaking the fuck out. All my life I wanted to do something cool, something great. All my life I was imagining and imagining the hell out of my future when I was in college, wondering where I would be and how I would end up and this is it. I’m here. I fucking made it. That fantasy place in the future is here. And tonight I’ve just realized it, in the tiny microwave, in the whirr of the fan, in the perfect, perfect dust.
And if I can make it here, (and sit in beautiful contemplation of it all), this of course begs the question, where else can I go?
Don’t mistake me though, because I am in love with right now. I don’t want to get lost in that fantasy future place of plans and what ifs and “I will be happy when”….but I feel so grateful for the life that I have had up until this very moment, that I’m just excited about what’s to come of it all.
So in this perfect night, I say it’s time we sat back and thought about our fucking accomplishments ladies and gents, and remembered that no one got you to where you are today except yourself. If you ever have a doubt on this earth about your capa-fucking-bilities, take a look around. You’re certainly not the same person you once were. What in the hell does that say about where you’re going?
This post is part of a weekly feature called the Passion Series…enjoy!
Clara Freeman is on a journey to empowerment, not just for herself, but for women everywhere. Years ago, as a young nurse, Clara found herself naturally coaching women who struggled to find their voice in times of hardship. Over the years, as the internet became the best medium to connect with people, she decided to voice her opinions on empowerment to a larger audience via her popular blog, Authentic Woman.
I can’t tell you how much in common I feel like I have with Clara just from reading her answers below. She talks about how a creative person’s interests can be so varied, which I feel like I struggle with every day as I ADD my way through a myriad of side projects. In fact her interests are so varied that she started up two other blogs just to house them all. And I have to give her props for attending weekly to two other blogs…I can barely keep up with this one! On top of that, she writes short stories, which are one my favorite things to write (besides blogging). It’s so awesome to connect with another blogger that also has her hands in so many different pies, so to speak.
Reading Clara’s answers below really gave me inspiration to keep blogging and keep writing and keep focusing on the things I’m passionate about….which if you think about it, are mostly blogging and writing
If you like any of her answers below, or can relate to them in any way, I highly recommend checking out her blog. Here’s what she had to say.
Has blogging helped you in any emotional or creative way?
That would be a definite yes! Before blogging, there were constant streams of writing out my emotions and creative thoughts via my trusted Canon typewriter or on those yellow legal pads. You see, up until 2000, I literally felt wary about the computer. I wasn’t a savvy writer in that way:) But then, an Oprah segment appeared where a young man was teaching lady “O” how to use the internet and I was like, wow, if she can do it, so can I.
All of that ‘stuff’ hanging about in my closets from an early age of wanting to reach out and become the advocate for the “voiceless” came to a head when I began to blog. Blogging allowed me to release and relate to all sorts of woman issues that had captured my attention and had me itching to step up and say “No more of that!” Generally, I’ve always known my purpose. It’s always been to speak for the “underdog” or those folks I felt for whatever reason, failed to speak for themselves- women, children and the elderly. As a young woman, wife and mother I became aware of how women could lose themselves in the activities of daily living, only to voice regret later.
My authenticity began with a reawakening to the re-discovery of “Me.” A long time Nursing career became more of an advocacy platform for the numerous women who approached me with questions, concerns and ‘woe is me’ lifestyle attitudes and I knew It was time to start the journey of women empowerment and use my expertise on women issues to help make a positive impact in the lives of other women.
Blogging has allowed me to do that. It continues to be the “cat’s meow” for
networking and building community; more than any other popular form of social
media.
Has blogging daily/weekly helped you achieve any personal goals?
Absolutely it has. I manage two blogs besides my Authentic Woman business brand. I usually post on a weekly basis for all three of my sites. Because my interests are so varied (as many creatives are) I realize I needed to separate those things that I love to immerse myself with, from those things I felt called to do; such as my celebrity news & entertainment blog, where I get a kick out of giving the teas on all things celebrity:) and then there are things that feed my spirit, such as writing, reading and connecting with other creatives via books/book bloggers/ authors and the writing community as a whole. My writers blog at Clara54 helps keep me grounded in that area.
I’ve been blogging consistently and professionally since 2006. It takes a lot to manage three sites and keep them relevant for my readers, but, somehow I’ve managed and it’s working out quite well! I’ve also taken classes to sharpen my skills so that I can continue to help others. By incorporating learning modules of Marketing, Coaching & Leadership classes into my schedule, I’m staying abreast of the constant ebb and flow of an entrepreneurial change that could potentially affect my business sustainability.
Blogging has allowed me to knock on doors, introduce my passion and purpose and have people say, “of course, welcome!” Today, Authentic Woman receives nearly 2000 views worldwide/ day, along with 100’s of visitors. If not for blogging, I might not have considered putting myself out there in cyberspace, in a career where I mentor and coach women to walk authentic and fearless in their truths.
Does the ritual of daily/weekly blogging give you motivation to pursue things you are passionate about?
For sure. I’m so passionate about empowering women to live their best lives, that I’m always looking to get the word out. In the first week of January 2013, I had a motivational column in the Premiere issue of a New Jersey entertainment magazine, a Women in Business piece accepted for an online women’s business magazine, and an inspirational 2013 article accepted in an online beauty & fashion magazine…I was thrilled and a bit amazed this all happened within the span of one week…and then, there’s my love for short story writing!
When I’m blogging, nowadays, it’s because I have something meaningful to share (even in celebrity news) that might have been overlooked or downplayed or bears repeating. I am always on the lookout for information that will help another person get a leg up, so to speak. Life is too short and much too fluid to hold back in your purpose for being. I love what I do. I will continue to do it- as Frank Sinatra says, “My way!”
Bloggers, creative writers and authors will need to have a thick skin, in that, sometimes on the journey to living your truth, people will tend to ignore you, overlook you and even talk bad about your contribution to society. Bloggers needn’t worry though, because when you’re blogging to your heart’s content? Your heart will truly be “Content.”
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This post is part of a series on bloggers who have found direction or passion through blogging. If you would like to be featured in the Passion Series, please contact me through this form with responses to the above questions, and share your passions. Thanks!
See all Passion Series posts >>