Picture a small airport in Providence Rhode Island, the year is 2002, an exhausted mother, her three-year-old curly hair bright eyed daughter, the short-hair kindhearted grandmother and young 30-year-old aunt are awaiting the arrival of their luggage. Luggage comes around on the merry-go-round like baggage claim. As the belt of the baggage claim continued to make it’s revolutions, with no luggage insight, The mother and grandmother decided to claim the rental car the family had reserved for their vacation. The little girl was left under the watchful eye of her aunt as her mother and grandmother walked across the hallway to the big Alamo sign. Three minutes after watching her mother and grandma walk across that long hallway, the baggage claim was no longer empty. The baggage carousel was now a ride for the curious child and her petrified aunt who was now chasing her across the belt. The little girl was curious and societal judgments meant nothing to her because all she cared about was the fun-looking ride in front of her. That little girl was me.

Im serious, that is too crazy of a story for me to make up on my own, I actually did embarrass my mom, aunt and grandmother as it took all three of them to remove me from my rollercoaster ride. Where does that childhood innocence and curiousity go? I guess the curiosity doesn’t ever leave us, but our willingness to explore and test our curiousity does leave. We become scared that other people around will judge us, or even worse, talk about us!! How silly of us humans to worry about the opinions of those who don’t matter. As my childhood hero, Dr. Seuss, said “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Funny how this quote most children grow up with is so rarely followed as we grow up.

Just because we now understand societal expectations and standards, does not mean we must conform to them. I mean come on, who wants to pass up on a piece of their favorite cake to remain a size two their whole life, or what about hiding your secret obsession with one direction because they “aren’t even a band anymore” come on people! We still have that fire in our souls that we had when we were younger! We all have been that little girl on the baggage carousel riding around in circles because all she knew was it was way more fun than sitting and waiting.

Everyone is passionate about something, find your passion and once you have found it, show it. Your happiness is much more important than society’s judgments anyways.