So I accidentally missed a day, I spent better part of this evening with family and some friends and it just slipped my mind. I will have a better post later today when my brain is in working order, but for now some random stuff I’ve been thinking about.
When I was younger two subjects that really interested me were astronomy and wolves. I either wanted to be an astronomer when I grew up or somehow work with wolves, I just thought it’d be so cool to live in the wild and study them. As I grew up and realized that I was most likely not going to be doing either I stopped investing time in learning about them. I did not see any intrinsic value learning about them if I couldn’t use it for an obvious end (a job). I also didn’t have a community of people that were as equally interested in the same subjects. I guess at 9 years old I didn’t really seek one out, I was busy with soccer anyway. Now with my new found zest for learning and connection finding I wonder if I could make these subjects valuable even if I don’t out right have a use for them. I bet there are some good metaphors to be had in both subjects.
So some questions to the reader. Where you ever passionate about learning something when you were younger that you have left behind? Or are there passions that you have carried through to now? If so why do you consider a passion for that subject, even if it isn’t connected directly to what you currently do, important?
Loaded Learning 
As you know from my blog, I wanted to do something scientific for a while. I used to dissect everything when I was a kid. I also wanted to be a writer, a path I pursued through graduate school. Specifically, I wanted to be a poet. I’ve dropped that, but blogging has filled my writing desires for the most part. I would still like to publish a book or something. I think having the desire to do science has affected the way I think. I think scientifically about everything. I also think there’s a certain kind of approach to life that values curiosity that I’ve gotten from my early interest in science. I wrote a lot of poems about science.
I still don’t really know what my passion is. Maybe I just don’t have one.
I actually went to college with someone who is now working with wolves. In fact he did his graduate work studying them.
My various interests and passions wax and wane, but I can’t think of one I had in my youth that I’m not still interested in now. I haven’t written a poem or a song in a long, long time–but I feel the lack, so I suppose that means I’ve not put them behind me.
Naval architecture. When I was in elementary and secondary school I learned everything I could about ships and the sea, but especially the designs of different vessels. For about four years in a row I designed and built ship models for my Father’s Christmas presents. The most ambitious one I built to sail and did it more or less successfully in the Atlantic Ocean: Florida and Maine. In college, I lost the passion, but still remember a lot and think back fondly to when I was “an expert”.
@Laura – I used to dissect things when I was younger too, usually it was electronics, but occasionally there was organic matter too. “If you listen closely enough, you can hear the poetry of science in everything.”
@Joe – Passion is a strong word but I’m sure there are things you are passionate about (in the dullest sense of the word) you aren’t as boring as you pretend.
@Jeff – Well in that case I am switching schools! haha
@Gardner – Get back to writing those songs! : )
@Steve – Wow, that is really interesting. Had no idea that you were an “expert” on naval architecture. Now I know who to bother just in case I have any questions on the topic : )