The word passion might paint a picture of Fabio posing for his hundredth romance novel that your mom secretly reads. Passion is tied to feelings of love and lust and is often given a bad connotation. But, in fact, I feel quite the opposite!

Passion is evident in all of our lives, whether in small quantities or bursting through your figurative seams. The passion I want to focus on is what we all have inside of us, our driving force and motivation to do things. For some here at Gustavus, your true passion could be the Greek system, personal academic goals or sports.

Think of a friend you have at Gustavus who displays passion. Using student-athletes, for example, they often spend hours training for their team outside of practice. The sport becomes a second full-time job, in addition to their academic lives. The dedication shown is often misjudged as obsession. For these passionate few, all of the training is worth it. You may think they’re insane and are wasting their time, but I would simply call them passionate. They are the people who go above and beyond what is asked of them to accomplish a task, gain that starting spot or plan an event.

The argument can be made that time is wasted and all the disappointments that sometimes come aren’t worth the effort. If someone is truly passionate about what they do, they don’t see it as a waste. The twisted thing is that deep down, even during the hard times, they are always enjoying it.

I can’t quote the statistic, but we aren’t all athletes on campus. Not being an athlete doesn’t mean passion isn’t in your life. I hope for the most part that the major we have all selected truly interests us. Hitting that stage of knowing what you’re doing and the classes you are taking are relevant is so rewarding. That feeling drives the passion to learn more and see what you can do with your newfound knowledge. That 10 page term paper your adviser is asking for? Sure, it sounds like it sucks now, but once that paper is done, a sense of accomplishment surges through you and you feel like you’ve gained a valuable experience. Having a losing season or bad races?

The passion drives you to know you can always go harder and do better. The “never quit” attitude surges through passionate people. They become catalysts among their group or team and often can be looked to when times are hard for the group.

A friend of mine gave me another Gustavus example of how he has seen passion first-hand. I have never been in a theater production of any kind, but we all can imagine the kind of work they put into the shows. The huge time crunch all of the actors, stage crew and everyone involved feel can cause a mountain of stress. Obviously everyone involved wants the production to be a huge success. Each one has passion to make sure the play is showcased in its top form. The example of plays is a first-hand example of passion put on display for us all to experience.

Passion is often heard with other words like dedication, motivation or courage. These traits do go hand in hand and compliment each other. It’s important for all of us to find that spark of interest and begin to invest our time into what we care about. Having that one thing that is special to you helps to keep us levelheaded. Passion can be a big part of setting short and long-term goals. I encourage you to see if passion has made an impact in your life. Rediscover that and remember passion is always next to you when things spiral out of control. Remembering why you got started in the first place can help you refocus your energies to get back on track. Keeping passion in our arsenal of motivators is essential. Just remember it’s there and always ready to push you through to the end.