Find Your Passion, Your Creative Outlet

I've been doing some back to school shopping with my 3 girls and we all seem drawn to the shirts that have sayings on them like, "Don't let anyone dull your sparkle!", "Live your dream!", "Live out loud!", etc.  The patterns, colors, and textures are all so creative and colorful.  It's inspired me to create some things for my school's computer lab based on these shirts.

If you haven't found your personal passion, I challenge you to do so.  For many years, I baked as my stress reliever.  I know it may sound odd, but when faced with overwhelming times, baking allowed me to focus on that singular task and not my troubles, measuring the ingredients, getting everything just right.  It was a self-fulfilling task that afforded the opportunity to have success at that time and bring joy to those that ate my treats.  When my husband (who is VERY diabetic, 3 shots and 2 pills a day diabetic) started having severe life threatening health issues, the latest landing him in the hospital in December of 2014 for 15 days straight, my passions had to change.  That's not to say I don't bake still, but it's only on a very special occasion and maybe once every other month now.  It was at that time, that I dove head first into technology and used it as my "escape" from whatever was bugging me.  It's my creative outlet, my stress reliever, and fulfills me in the same manner that baking did when others can enjoy the fruits of the end products.  Here are some projects I've worked on this past summer that have benefited myself and my husband, who is also a teacher (2nd grade).  Feel free to use them if you want too.

I've seen others use their passions and creative outlets to benefit others in many ways as well.  What I do know is that in discovering and embracing your passions, your creative outlet, that you will change your life for the better.  You will have a task or place to go when times get tough, and they will at some point, but it will allow you a constructive outlet.  Hopefully you can bring your passions into your class and be a teacher who no longer survives, but thrives, who brings creativity to their own students, and inspires them in their learning as a byproduct of just living your passion out loud.