There is something so infectious about being around people who are living a life full of love, courage, kindness, and passion. I strive everyday to be one of those people. Living with passion is scary. People are so quick to judge when they don’t share the same interests and passions are others. It is so easy to just hide in a little bubble of whatever is “normal” in society so that everyone can accept us. But what is the fun in that? There are so many people that are just so miserable, who don’t have any passion or dreams to live their lives for. It’s funny because while writing this post I’m thinking to myself, “I really hope nobody judges me for writing this.” We need to stop apologizing for doing things that are important to us. Nobody ever got anywhere in life by hiding from what they believed was important.

I try my best everyday to be a person who lives my life with love and kindness. It’s crazy how often I have to remind myself to be kind. You would think that kindness is an automatic part of being human, but somehow it has become so rare. I always find myself quickly judging others, or thinking nasty things. I have to quickly stop myself and remember that I am not perfect. People probably think the exact same things about me, and I would feel awful if people were judging me, or thinking nasty thoughts about me. We are all human. None of us really know what we’re doing, but living with love and kindness can make it all a little easier. People are so quick to bring people down. We should be living lives of encouragement!! Encourage people to follow their dreams!! Encourage people to live passionate lives!! The word encourage literally has the word courage in it. Help people be courageous while you yourself are being courageous. Being passionate shapes us all as individuals, and it is so important to show the world who we really are.

It’s crazy to think of all of the useless conversations I have had throughout my life that just consisted of straight up gossip. At 20 years old, I still find myself in those conversations. But, I am trying my best to avoid them. How can conversations like that benefit our lives? They can make us feel better about ourselves for 10 seconds because we feel like we are better than the victim of our conversation, but that’s about it. I have barely held on to any of the friendships that merely revolved around speaking badly about others. Think about all of the wasted energy that goes into being nasty to other people. I went through my phase of “I hate everyone, I hate everything,” and now I am choosing to turn my life around. I want to live a life where I choose to see the good in everyone and everything. I want to give everyone and everything a chance.

I often find that I am afraid to speak my mind, or speak about my passions because I am afraid that people will judge. It is so crazy how easily people judge the things that they do not understand. Just because you don’t understand something, doesn’t make it wrong. I spent my whole life with people telling me to stop talking about Australia, and to just get over it already. But look where I am now. I am literally about to live my dream of moving there. Never let go of your passions. Dreams really do come true. Surround yourself with encouragers. Be an encourager. Be passionate.

- Tess