Passion. Again.

It’s hard to believe school’s getting ready to start again already. After two years off, it still seems like summer’s entirely too short. :) I’m enrolled for three graduate classes this semester and it should either be a blast or terrible. I’m hoping for the former and expecting the latter, just because I’m a farmer and that’s what we do, hope for the best and prepare for the worst. My honey is an insufferable optimist and of course sees no issues with returning to college. I suppose that’s the difference between enjoying your undergrad and suffering through it. Guess which one of us did which? The best part about my undergrad was doing a senior thesis project in creative writing with a professor who really loved my work and I really loved her input and the first day of classes after I graduated when I realized that I never had to go back. Now here I am again, staring at course schedules and wondering what the hell I got talked into. I guess we can never get too comfortable or complacent in our circumstances. I stuck my head under a cow for a year and that’s been a wonderful experience. I’ve gained a lot of confidence and a lot of determination that I need to do something else with my life besides milk cows. I still love it and love the animals, but it’s way too hard and backbreaking work for too little pay to retire out of it. So while I’m working for my creative career to take off, I might as well learn to run a business and build websites.

If only we could look into the future and know if our choices were right or good. Maybe there are no such things as right or good, maybe there’s just the different paths we take and the different places we end up because of them. I rather think the latter since two people can make the same choices and still end up different places because of them. And maybe the choice wasn’t the right one for one person and he or she had to fight twice as hard as the other for the same thing since their heart wasn’t in the work. Whatever choices we make, our hearts must be in them. For that is, I’ve found, at least one key to happiness. You must give yourself over to what you do, completely and without reserve, and not expect to get anything back, but thoroughly enjoy it when you do. But that’s just me, and that way might not work for everyone. :) So don’t just listen to me, listen to everyone, and, as an old cowboy told me, find out what works for you and for your horse on that day. It might not work every day, so listen, try different things, stay flexible, and, above all, stay passionate.