When it comes to drive, passion is usually the driver, sometimes it’s the shotgun rider. And in rare cases, the passion you had when you were a child carries with you into adulthood. When Brennan gave me this prompt, it really is a challenge. Not going to lie, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the day to day life to forget what your passion is. But when I searched within myself, I know a few.

The first thing I know I am passionate about is the arts, especially film. Ever since I saw Cars in theaters, 3 times, I’ve always wanted to get into film. At first, I wanted to be an actress, but it would involve getting into acting classes an at that age, 7-9 years old, I was a serious homebody and just wanted to be home before and after school playing with my toys. And for the longest time, I wanted to be a director and it wasn’t until my parents introduced me the idea about screenwriting at the age of 15 that made me go “I should do this.” And looking back on my childhood, I’ve been writing scripts for as long as my best friend has been drawing floor plans! So being a writer/director was the plan for a while until a college instructor mentioned that writer/directors do their own movies. Upon hearing that, I’m like, “don’t want to do that, I’ll stick to writing then.” Overall I just love being behind the camera, whether it is camerawork for my church to being a production assistant for a small film or documentary. And being a writer, I get to escape my own little world and create my own world, imagine being in a serene place. Also Hollywood is not doing well due to it’s constant remakes and based of this and that and no originals, especially Disney. When I was younger, I was hoping to change Hollywood for the better but now, I just hope to get into the film scene with the very minimal experience I have.

Another thing I am passionate about is the deaf culture; no, I am not deaf, I am hard of hearing which is in the middle of being deaf and fully hearing. My experience didn’t come until much later. I was diagnosed with hearing loss at the age of 7; no one knew exactly what caused it, the best guess was due to all the ear infections as a toddler. Due to the lack of resources and the predominately white and able-bodied area I grew up in, my parents took up the choice of giving me hearing aids and depend on me having it on all the time. They never knew or learned sign language, and I wish they did. It wasn’t until I took up ASL 1 my junior year of high school where I learned about, not only the language, but the culture as well. And so I continued, 2 years in high school and 2 years in college. My parents were so amazed at how well I was doing with it that they wanted me to be an interpreter. Me? A hard of hearing individual? Interpreter? No way, not happening. But God kept my mother’s prayers and I started working for the deaf and deaf blind. There, my communication skills continued to a point where I can say I am fluent in this beautiful language. As well as to see the deaf community in action and it is beautiful! Will I continue? Probably not at the exact location but I hope to continue to in other forms. As for my hearing aids, well, it’s collecting dust somewhere because I haven’t worn it since the pandemic. I was home so no need to wear it, I tried wearing it when things open up but it was uncomfortable so it was my choice not to wear them anymore. My mom wanted me to keep wearing it but I’m an adult and it’s my choice to whether use the device or not.

Other minor passions I currently have are swimming, drawing, and other forms of art. I used to draw all the time, especially in the first 2 years of high school. But now, I just draw whenever I feel like it; whether it’s something that happened at work, getting my emotions off my chest with a burden, or something from one of my stories. These days it’s just drawing about life. Ever since being let go from my swimming job a year ago, I haven’t been around to swimming, but I do enjoy the water and that’s something that experience can’t take away from.