Today with Eunice, we’ll be discussing the three Aches in growth. The Ache in Following your passion, The Ache in Failing, The Ache in love.

The Ache in Following your Passion

Theatre is the career I chose to manifest my passion. When I get the question, can your passion be your career? And people doubt it and say no if you make your passion your career you will fail. However, my answer to that question is “yes and no.” The word passion is misleading Merriam-webster dictionary defines it as an emotion that it can be the following:

•  Emotion
• intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction
• An ardent affection: love
• a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept

I agree that passion is an emotional driven force or feeling, and knowing already how our emotions can be fleeting or unreliable when it comes to being rational does not make “passion” sound sustainable. However, I think of passion as a conviction to devote my attention to something I value. For me, that is people, learning about people from all sorts of backgrounds, understanding the human condition, leading others, community-building, creating and collaborating with individuals for a common goal. That is my passion, and I think that your passion is not so literal; instead, I equate passion with human nature. I believe it to be an intuitive sense, something you are natural at, and it serves you in many ways. Some people’s passion is healing, fixing people’s issues that can manifest in all sorts of careers. You can be a doctor, engineer, mechanic, nurse, therapist, yogi or pastor.

Again, I believe that your passion is a human instinct that you seem to always follow, so the career you choose is the medium in which you are using to make your passion a tangible reality. And so for me, I am using theatre to explore my passion, and I find that I chose the right path because theatre offers the opportunity to learn about the human condition, to create and be expansive with my creativity, to collaborate with a diverse group of people. And to share my yet untold story. There will be challenges or obstacles that come your way regardless, and I would rather it be for something I care about. With that being said, to answer that question, YES! Your career and passion work hand in hand.

The Ache in Failing

The possibility of failure is real, and so is the possibility of real growth. Don’t rush the waiting period of your life, you will miss the small moments of growth within yourself. I know it is difficult not to feel rushed when everything feels like it is going 100 km/hr when everyone else is getting to the places in their career when your family or parents question your decisions. Slow down and be still and take this time to be unrushed when your progress is not apparent. I understand the ache, the ache to be there already because you have worked so hard for it, and you want it now! I can’t tell you what lies ahead for your future, but something I have learned about changes/ transformation periods in life is that it happens painstakingly slow and long for a reason. So slow down and be present with where you are now. The “ache” may linger because it is your body reminding you not to give up, that something is coming, and your mind is trying to make sense of it as “I am not where I want to be….so push, so rush”. It is then that YOU: the master of this mind and body has to remind it to BREATHE. 

The “ache” is a reminder of the unknown in the day to day. But amongst the unknown, you have been changing, you have been learning, you have been growing. I recommend making a list, and on the left side of the column it was “you a year ago” and right side “You today” what you knew and didn’t know, what happened to you (good or bad) and what you have learned from those experiences and see for yourself how much you have changed.

The Ache in Love 

I can talk about love and being loved forever. The ache in wanting to be loved is hard to answer because the answer is so simple, and yet we don’t do it. As Maya Angelou said, love recognizes no barriers. The ache for love comes from the struggle to accept the love in return. My greatest accomplishment during quarantine is not Shakespeare’s Hunnies, it is not the fact that I can finally see the floors of my bedroom, is not how I learned to do my own hair, take care of my body. My greatest accomplishment during quarantine is my self-love journey. I finally took the time to get to know me and love her. All the other accomplishments are fantastic, but I would not have been able to sustain it if I did not believe I was deserving of it. Self-love is powerful, and that is all I have to say about that.

“My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry” – Maya Angelou.

The three Aches are a necessary part of growth and will continue to be part of your life. I hope my message provided another outlook on it and I would be down to chat with anyone who wants to talk further about it.

Hey Hunksters! I hope you’re having a restful day and found some time to be outside and enjoy the sunshine!