Here's the thing

How can someone who has lived presumably more than half her life not have an immediate answer to the question, “So what’s your hobby?”

You know, as in, passion. Or to put it more precisely, what’s my ‘thing’?
I would have thought that question an easy one to answer, because there are so many things I enjoy doing, some of which have been activities of mine for many years. But when a group of aviation professionals who have achieved outstanding success in their field asks you what you do outside of work, it is easy to fumble for the words that could hold up against their obvious lifelong passion.

Talk about feeling inadequate.

Here I am in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, home of the world famous AirVenture annual air show hosted by the Experimental Aircraft Association, surrounded by people who have jet fuel pulsing in their veins, and I am shaking my head recalling the dinner conversation from the other evening. That’s when the $64,000 question was posed to me, and that’s when I sat in puzzlement at the “right” answer.

Granted, the question was asked just a few hours after these aviation experts had flown in a B-17, as in one of the airplanes that flew bombing missions in World War II. These guys took turns sitting in the gunner’s seat as they flew over Wisconsin. Here it was a few hours after their flight and they were still grinning and laughing like little boys. Now that is pure passion.

There are many pastimes I enjoy, but none that generates the kind of childlike excitement or amazement that I see in my co-workers who just so happened to have designed, built and flown the world’s fastest conventional helicopter.

My hobbies are scarce these days due to a heavy work-school juggling act, but how can I use my “day” job as an excuse when this group of what I consider to be geniuses recently wrapped up a multi-year project that consumed their lives? Well, they were “working” at something they are passionate about, so there is a bit of a difference. Still, I have to think, “Whoa, I need a lifestyle adjustment here. My passions are lacking. I need some of this.”

I was so troubled by this conversation that I shared my distress later on the phone long distance with my husband. Of course, he immediately rejected my angst.

“You have plenty of hobbies,” he countered, listing the same ones I had mentioned. Then he added, “You love writing,” or words to that effect.

‘Nuff said. He’s right. My passion is storytelling. When I get on to an idea and start interviewing people and getting to the real details, I am so jazzed to create a beautiful story that will inspire, inform, entertain, and even create a lasting record about an individual that is worthy of remembering.

Doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? For me, it is. And that’s how it works. We each have something that energizes us. Some of us find that passion at an early age. Others may discover it later in life. Whenever it hits, it becomes a kind of Gatorade for the soul, replenishing what’s missing and giving us the boost we need to keep going. We just have to find it, embrace it, and let it fill us up.

Copyright 2011 By Marianne V. Heffernan