The subject of rocks is a bit of a boring one. Rocks are rocks, what more is there to it? There is actually quite a lot more to it. I am taking a geology course this semester, and at first, I was not a fan. Memorizing the names, composition, properties, and characteristics of various minerals and rocks is tedious work.

My initial thoughts were, “How is this information ever going to help me? Why do we have to know this? This is so boring and a complete waste of my time.” However, my mindset quickly started to change because of the unstoppable enthusiasm my professor has for this subject. It is so obvious that my professor has a love for geology. She explains things and talks about the subject so naturally and effortlessly. She has fun facts and geology puns ready at hand, and she will use them.

Her enthusiasm and passion made me realize that maybe there was something a little more to rocks than I thought. I suddenly found myself becoming excited to go to geology lab and actually answering questions in class. Her passion and interest in rocks ignited a spark of interest within myself.

This is a beautiful thing about people. We each have the power and potential to touch each other's souls. Emma Stone’s character in La La Land said it best:

People love what other people are passionate about.

This is something I’ve found to be very true. People can inspire us and help us to see a completely new side of things, but we have to let them.

Too often, we don’t allow ourselves to be inspired by others passions because we have too much pride. It saddens me to see how much joy people are missing out on because they think they are too cool for rocks (or whatever the subject or activity may be). Don’t take yourself too seriously. Stop thinking you’re too cool for that. Listen to what other people are passionate about. If you do these things you will find that you’ve opened yourself up to a whole world of joy and excitement.

Now I have a pet rock (his name is Cranjis McBasketball). Now I randomly pick up rocks and try to identify them. Now I wonder what things are made of.

Now I know how essential rocks and minerals are to our everyday lives. They make up our cars, our buildings, our homes. They’re in our table salt, our countertops, and even our pencils. It doesn’t matter that I may never “need” to know that marble reacts to acid and quartzite scratches glass. What matters is that it is interesting, and even, dare I say, fun to be able to tell those rocks apart from each other.

Learning, no matter how boring the subject may seem, will never be useless. Being a part of another person’s passion will never be a waste of time. Not only do you have the power to excite a new passion in someone else, but you also have so many opportunities to let others share their passions with you.

Rocks are interesting. They are much more complex than you think and the way they are made is honestly quite beautiful. Don’t let yourself miss out on joy, excitement, passion, and even a little adventure because you were too busy being cool.