Citegeist

Passion Quilt Meme: Do What You Love

// April 28th, 2008 // Libraries, Photography, Random

Michael Stephens tagged me for the Passion Quilt Meme yesterday on his blog, Tame the Web. I had been thinking over the past few days of writing down the story of how I came to love taking pictures,* and the quilt meme sort of made those thoughts gel in my head: If you are lucky enough to be good at something, then you should try your hardest to make that your life’s work.

The meme: Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.

Capture what you love, whether in pictures, writing, needlework, painting, or even little pieces of macaroni glued to construction paper. Capturing memories, ideas, moments, and people in concrete form makes them more real to me, and I delight in reliving them, which makes my connections to those people and moments stronger by the day.

If you believe in something, tell someone. For me, saying aloud what I think I believe often holds surprises: sometimes I don’t know how passionately I believe something until I hear it out loud. Sometimes I have no idea what I think about something until I hear it come out of my mouth. Finding and establishing connections with others who share your vision–whether it be your vision of family life or library land–will cement those beliefs for you and keep your passion alive.

If we believe that we can do anything, we will not succumb to the fear and inertia that second-guessing ourselves can bring. It took me thirty years to learn this lesson; I *heard* these words a lot growing up a girl in Kentucky, but I didn’t really believe them–much less act on them– until there was someone in my life who really believed it, too.

Lastly, it is important to work hard. This may seem like a no-brainer, but I include it here in part as a response to the “rockstar” thread that strung through the bibliobloggosphere last week. Those who wrote about becoming accomplished in our field, starting with Meredith Farkas and Dorothea Salo, spoke of working hard at whatever specialization we choose.

I’ll tag:

• Ryan Deschamps
• Julie George
• Jason Price
• Steve Lawson
• Was gonna add Chrystie, but she’s already done it!

*In case you’re curious, here’s the story:
When I was very small, my family lived in the UK for a time. One of my dad’s Air Force buddies, whose name I remember as A.B. Wayne, had a camera and often took photos of us. I was in love with the crisp and honest portraits that laid open the humblest moments to later examination. I was fascinated with the small, black-and-white prints that somehow glowed in a way that the color prints did not. I was three.

Fast-forward seven years to when my uncle gave me a Polaroid camera for Christmas. The film was a bit too expensive for me to take very many shots, but I did what I could. I later had a 110 camera, a Kodak “disk” camera–which refers to the format of the film, not digital media!–a Canon point and shoot 35-mm camera and a Canon 35-mm SLR before venturing into digital with point-and-shoot models from Casio, Kodak and Fuji. I bought a digital SLR in 2005 and upgraded to a better model last summer. If I had taken my own advice and pursued photography as a career, that list would probably be much longer!