A few weeks ago, I took a break from the daily grind with my family and traveled to an island just an hour west of my home town in Washington. Whidbey Island is a quaint and beautiful island 30 miles north of Seattle. It's one of Washington's largest islands and is home to a few fairly popular attractions, such as Deception Pass and Fort Casey State Park. One of my favorite family traditions is visiting places like Whidbey Island and exploring the smaller towns, visiting bookshops and antique shops, and embracing the Pacific Northwest landscapes. Each trip, whether it's to Whidbey or somewhere on the Olympic Peninsula, I find myself in awe of the people, their wisdom, and the world around me.

One of my favorite spots, aside from Deception Pass and the views from Fort Casey, was a city called Langley. Langley is located in the southern part of Whidbey Island and is home to a number of good bookstores, coffee shops, and an assortment of other stores. Most of these stores are small, family-owned businesses that really depend on visitors and locals alike. As we meandered through a handful of stores in downtown Langley, one store in particular stood out to me: Whidbey Island Natural. The store itself looked simple from the outside, and I found the lettering on the store window particularly appealing. I could see through the glass, a woman sitting behind a counter, focused on the one customer looking at a selection of soaps.

We walked inside and were greeted by a cheerful smile. Whidbey Island Natural had a collection of goods, from local honeys to homemade soaps and balms. The other customer left and it was just me, my sister, and my father, wandering about the little shop. The woman at the front asked, "Have you been to our store before?" We shook our heads and she explained to us how everything was local or made by her and her son. This sparked an interest for us, and we asked her about how she came into this business and slowly transitioned into a conversation about doing what you love.

Kimberly Tiller and her son, David, as they reiterate on their store's website, were "Unwilling to settle for the daily grind and commute to software jobs on the mainland" and decided to pursue their passions and dreams of producing "a product fitting our criteria of handmade, wholesome, consumable and useful."

And so a company was born: Whidbey Soap Company, which was later rebranded as Whidbey Island Natural. She explained that she and her son had both been working in the software industry before starting their business, and it wasn't the most positive experience for the two of them, "[The tech industry] was not my tribe. It was leeching my soul." This stuck with me. A job should never leech your soul. Day in and day out, people commute to and from work, and when a career begins to take the enjoyment out of life, that's a big warning sign: "I wanted to do something I was passionate about. This may not be the most profitable experience, but my business does more for me than the software industry ever did."

For me, this conversation was a pivotal moment: do what you love. The phrase kept repeating itself in my mind as I wandered on back to the car. Do what you love. Kimberly Tiller was right, and this wasn't the first time I had heard it: Do what you love. I've heard it from teachers, I've heard it from friends and family, but all it took was one stranger, and a little shop at the southern end of Whidbey Island to help it sink in: Do what you love.