Passionately Passionate

i realize there are a lot of things in life that arent fair, but i wanna just vent about something that has been annoying me lately because of how unfair it feels


all my life i was encouraged to be 100% about things, i was encouraged to not just give 50% or even 80% of myself to something, that if i was going to throw myself into something i either needed to do it to the best of my ability and do it big or dont bother at all


ok thats great


me putting myself all in to whatever i do has generated a very passionate human being


i dont do much but its because whatever i do, i do it all, i do it well, and i do my best
i become borderline obsessed with things
i find out all i can about stuff
i give everything ive got to stuff
i talk about it a lot
i work hard for it
i sacrifice for it
i dive in head first and i dont look back and for the most part i dont regret it
sometimes the "it" is a friendship, sometimes its an organization, sometimes its a school project (ok its very very rarely a school project) but you get the idea...


i am willing to make the claim at this point that i am one of the most passionate human beings you may ever meet, and if you think thats being cocky i will just say that you have probably never heard me talk about chick-fil-a, my friends, Jesus, marketing, golf...i could go on but i wont


growing up, i was told that passion was the difference in good and great
passion was the line in the sand between maybe and absolutely
passion was something to be strived for
passion was something not just everyone could be
passion was a rare and wonderful quality
passion was a good thing




and to a point i still get told some sort of combination of the above statements




passion is the reason that even though, at the moment, i am only a team leader for cfa, i can tell you the entire chick fil a story of how we started as a company, i can tell you all the key players, i can tell you the nutritional information of about 90% of our menu, i can tell you key sales figures from the past 10 years of our corporation, i can tell you new products/services being developed under the cfa brand, i can tell you exactly where we stand as a unit in respect to the rest of the chain in the drive thru reports on any given day, i can tell you not just most of what we do but why we do it, how we do it, when it started, and where wed like to see it go, i can leave your head spinning with so much cfa information you could convince someone that you worked for us....


i gotta tell you, if you think you could walk into any other cfa and expect another team leader or member to know that stuff for no other reason then their love of all things cfa...you have another thing comin


all that to say that lately ive found myself more and more having to defend why i am passionate about things
people making fun of my passion




im old enough to know that not everyone is going to like, or understand, or agree with, or appreciate everything i do or am but when exactly did it become wrong to be passionate about the life you live?


why is it wrong to feel strongly about something?
why am i having to defend my enthusiasm?
why is it ok to hurt someone with words because they love what they do, who they get to be, and who they get to be around?
when did it become acceptable to tear down someone for diving in when the rest of the world is just wading?




thats junk




i am not the smartest person you will ever know
i dont have the most creative ideas
i am funny a lot of times, but i certainly have joke fails quite often
i will never be an olympic athlete
i talk a lot
i dont listen very well
its hard to focus on things
i procrastinate like my life depends on it
i have a problem with not thinking things all the way through
i dont have a lot of friends
and i've been told i should smile more often




but dang it ive got passion
ive got enthusiasm
whatever i do, i do my best to do it well
i am dedicated
i work hard for things i believe in, it just turns out that i dont believe in very many things


and who said i had to?
maybe its better to just have a few things and do those with all your heart, and rock those out
that, btw, is what chick fil a's theory is about our menu...its why while everyone else is expanding their menu with lots and lots of choices we stick to what we have always had and just keep making that the best it can be...and i probably dont have to tell you who is winning the war both  economically and with brand image






so im done apologizing for passion
Jesus was passionate
He was passionate about people
and all the "stuff" i end up being passionate about are because i see a great way to appreciate and be passionate about people through them


im done saying im sorry that i get really excited about what i do
about who i am
im done saying please forgive me for giving you everything i have
im done with i apologize that the way i can serve you, respect you, and honor you best is to do my best for and with you


its ok if you arent passionate
i understand that not everyone is me
thank God for that
i understand that there is a beauty to the diversity of Gods creation
i appreciate that passion doesnt have to be your forte
i accept that i dont have to understand everyone not being as enthusiastic about stuff as i am


but just because you dont get so excited you could burst over things like marketing, great customer service, chick fil a, friends, God's goodness, laughter and every other thing i get so excited about doesnt mean that you get to question the validity or acceptability of the twinkle i have in my eye




if you think im just some silly 23 year old who is "just being kate" then i respectfully tell you youre wrong, i respectfully tell you that whether you are 60 or 16, whether you have been through hell all your life or havent ever had a bad day, whether you are my best friend or you have never met me, there is nothing that gives you the right to do what you can to extinguish someone else's flame, mine or otherwise....NOTHING


God gives me excitement
He made it
He made me too
and i think if God loves that about me then you need to step off and realize you dont have a right to not love it too




sorry that this isn't the typical post for me
but people hurt sometimes
i hurt sometimes
and sometimes you let it go
but sometimes i think its ok to stand up and say, i hear what youre saying, but youre wrong