I have been working on a book for the past few months aimed at encouraging young adults to design an extraordinary life for themselves by find their own unique direction. A direction determined by passion, talent happiness, success, and contribution. I am always on the lookout for examples I can use to illustrate some of my points and just the other night my 11 year old daughter and Keanu Reeves gave me a perfect story about what it means to be passionate. (Okay, mostly her, but he was a tiny part of the story!)
My daughter wants to be an actress.
Over the past year she has been doing some background work for TV and films. And she loves it.
She's intrigued by the technical aspects and the craft table (that the snacks for us non-actors) and the wardrobe people. She's always full of questions on the way home about what certain lingo meant or the resumes of the actors she got to work with. She likes that she gets paid. She doesn't mind wearing a winter coat in the subway in August or hiking back up the bunny slope 30 times in one day. She doesn't mind that sometimes there is a lot of waiting around or that sometimes the scene she was in gets cut in the final edit. She just loves it.
But the other night I learned that she was passionate about it.
She got selected to work on a new Keanu Reeves movie overnight at Grand Central Station.
We arrived at 8PM and waited.
We walked over to the set to get a snack and waited.
Then we went back to holding and waited.
Then we got a lunch break at 1AM and nibbled on some food.
Then we went back to set and waited.
And then they told us they had to dismiss the kids because they can only work so many hours
So back to holding we went to collect our things and sign out.
And all around me the other kids were upset. One girl was mumbling under her breath that she can't believe she came all the way to NY and wasn't even on camera. Two boys were actually borderline tantrum. Another boy was complaining about what a waste of time it was.
And my daughter stood in line to check out and said.
"That was awesome."
"Wasn't the hotel ballroom a really nice holding room?"
"How awesome was it that they had PopTarts at the craft table?"
"Wasn't the PA really nice?"
"Did I have any of the blue cheese dressing at lunch because it was really good?"
"Wasn't the guy on set playing the homeless man just perfect?"
"How cool was it to be in Grand Central so late at night watching a movie being made?"
And on, and on, and on.
As we waited in the parking garage at 3AM (for our car to be jump started), I asked if her she was disappointed that she didn't get to be on camera and she looked at me and said, "Why would I be?".
And that is the moment I knew that she has a passion for the business of TV and film. It is not about the result for her, it is about the experience. It is just a pure love. It is passion.
She has the passion to put in the time and effort, she has the passion to learn all she can, and she has the passion to face the challenges without a complaint because the only reason she is doing it is for the pure joy of passion. Just being part of it lights her soul on fire.
And that is a fine example of the fire we each need to find in order to live a most exceptional life.
This is the kind of light we all need. A passion for something that makes us lose track of time, a passion for something that inspires us read books, and take classes, and ask questions, a passion for something that makes challenges seem like fun.
Now go out and find your passion!
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