Passions Series

One of the most common questions you hear in the unschooling/autodidact community is, "What are you passionate about?" For awhile, when I was depressed, I was answering that with a shrug and a change of the subject. But when I really got to thinking about it, I realized I have TONS of passions! I decided I wanted to write about each of them, how I got into them, what they mean to me, and what place they hold in my life.

So I'm going to be starting a new series on this blog, sharing my passions with you all. And I'd encourage anyone else who has a blog to do the same! I'd LOVE to know what you're passionate about, why you love it, and how you got there. My hope is that by looking through my posts, people can gain some insight into why interests matter, what sparks an interest, and what can kill it - and that maybe, amid all my gushing about the things I love, you'll find a new passion for yourself.

I'm going to be using this post as an index of all the posts in the series, so if you're getting here later on, you should see a list of my interests below. Before I get into that, though, a warning: These posts have a tendency to be really, really wordy. There's a couple reasons for that. For one, I seem to have been born without the gene that allows people to be concise, and everything I write is wordy. (Hell, I'm on my third paragraph already, and this is just supposed to be an index.) For two, once you get me started talking about my interests and passions, I basically can't shut the hell up. But the main reason is that I want to really be thorough here. I want to make it clear exactly why these things matter to me and what the story is behind each interest, because I want people to know what that looks like. I want to help people recognize the value and the process behind each burgeoning interest in their children, their friends, or themselves. And I want nervous new unschooling parents to see the map that leads from point A (which might be South Park or Pokemon) to Point Z (which might be ancient history, a foreign language, or an amazing career).

This is all a roundabout way of saying that before you read these posts, you might want to settle in with a cup of tea.

My Passions

History, Part I: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Past