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La Serenissima

© Kelly L. Henderson

Somebody asked me recently the significance of the photograph of Venice at the top of the Follow Your Passion site. Well, as you can imagine it's a little hard to visualize an abstract concept like that of "following passions". What exactly does such a thing look like?

When I was choosing an image, I looked at many pictures trying to find one that evoked the idea or the feeling behind the topic. When I came across the photos of Venice I remembered my old passion for Europe, a passion that I did indeed follow. Once upon a time my desire to travel to Europe was the driving force behind my whole life.

When I was a teenager I wanted to travel. I read a lot about travel. I watched television programs about travel. I dreamed of travel. Most of all I wanted to travel abroad. In fact, for a long time I believed if I didn't get to Europe in my lifetime my whole life would have been wasted. Extreme, no? But that is truly how I felt.

Unfortunately, my family were not international travellers, I didn't have any friends who wanted to travel, and I was too shy and inexperienced to travel by myself. Furthermore, I didn't have anywhere near the kind of money one would need to travel abroad.

When I graduated from university I was officially poor, jobless, and indebted courtesy of my student loan. Nevertheless, I still hoped to go to Europe some day. And one day I did - but it took another eight long years.

Eventually I travelled to Europe several times, travelling on my own or with others. On one trip I spent a few particularly lovely days in and around Venice, La Serenissima, and remember that city with special fondness. Hence, my picture selection.

Eventually the novelty of travelling "the continent" wore off. I had done Europe, at least, that is, to the extent I could begin to think about other things in my life. (I have not crossed the ocean for several years now, and since my last trip, unfortunately, I have developed an aversion to long flights and tight, cramped airplane seats. Poor curmudgeonly me!)

Anyway, my point is this: Europe was my passion at one time. If I hadn't found my way there I would have regretted it all my life. Instead I managed to fulfill that passion and overcome my constant yearning for it. It was only after I'd done so that I was able to move on in life and concentrate on other matters.