Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to work with animals, whether at the time, it was horses, cows, dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, etc. I knew what I wanted to do as a lifestyle. Now if you had asked me when i was 10 what exactly i had wanted to do with my life I wouldn't have an answer to that but if you asked me right now at the age of 18, I'd tell you I want to train wild mustangs and horses owned by owners that are having difficulty with their 1200 pound animal. As time went on, I started working on a farm, and as well as a vets office, I learned how to work with horses, dogs and cats, but it seems as though I click with horses 10x more then any other animal I have been around with. I would have never expected my life to take me to where I am now.
Have you ever had that feeling where once you started with what ever you started with, you knew, you just knew that THIS was your calling, THIS was your career, THIS is what you were brought to this earth to do. It has to be one of the greatest feelings to find this. It sometimes isn't common to find this, or when you do find something like this, sometimes people don't stick with it because it can get a little hard as time goes on, but thats the whole point you are supposed to learn, its never supposed to be easy. When you find your calling, don't let it go. Some find it at a young age, and others take a little longer to find it, sometimes they are in their 50s and sometimes you can be in your 20s.
As time continues on, with what it is you have found as your career path, you will hit some bumps along the way, and most will usually be worse then the one before. You'll hit the bumps of people who don't support what you do, and those bumps of losing friends along the way of finding yourself, the easier bumps of making new friends, and getting the help you need, but even when you hit those big bumps, you can still get the help and support you need, even though you might lose the supportive ones, you meet people along the way who hold the same interest as you, as well as those who support you even if they might not agree with it. The worse part of the bumps is when those cruel people come around and they act like they are better then you, but sometimes it makes you just want to work harder for what you are going for. There is always that one person who may be better then you, but it's because they were either at it way longer then you, or they work at it 24/7 when you only go for it a couple of days, or five days a week or maybe even both, but as we all should know, you are only as great as you make yourself to be; keep working at it, don't quite because when you do, it truly wasn't meant for you.
The "hobby" turned into your lifestyle. People including your parents may have thought you'd grow out of that "acting stage", "singing stage", "music stage", "horse stage", and many more stages that you have gone through and stuck with it. People have always questioned you asking why you like something over the other and why choose that instead of this and your answer to them most of the time is it just clicked, or its my passion, maybe something along the lines of I love this and it's stuck with me since I started. Maybe it's the adrenaline of walking onto stage pretending to be a someone a totally different character then who you are, or walking on stage in-front of thousands of people who are going to hear your music, maybe its the adrenaline of kicking that soccer ball into the net and hearing the fans scream and chant your name, maybe the hard working days of poking needles in dogs, and getting peed on or even worse, maybe the adrenaline of getting strike at by a wild 1200 pound mustang who doesn't want to respect you just yet, or maybe it's just because you knew you were born to do it, and theres no stopping now.
I was reminising today, I had picked up my yearbook just going through it and I flashed back to some amazing memories in high school, and I came across this quote at the back of the book, it spoke true meaning to me, and i didn't realize who had said it and where I heard it before until I had looked at the name, and Mikey Oscar said this quote "Never be afraid to be the one who sets the spark to start the fire." This had spoke true volumes after i read it, and I believe setting your goals and reaching for them, even if theres some others holding back is always ok to go for it.
My "hobby" turned into my lifestyle. My hobby was horses. I started when I was 5 and have been going strong ever since. Yes I have gotten bucked off so many times, thrown off in different circumstances, kicked, bit, stomped on, peed on, pooped on, thrown into puddles, I've had the cries and the laughs, but I never once doubted my riding or where I was going with them. I have always been the patient type with animals, but with horses I knew I had a certain, well a different kind of patience with them. About 3 years ago, I knew I wanted to train horses, now I didn't realize I wanted to train wild horses, but I knew I wanted to train a horse that knows nothing to a horse that knows everything. About a year and a half ago, I met this guy who trains wild mustangs and horses owned by people that are having some difficulty with their horse. Just like me, I am and have had some difficulties with her, but after talking to him he's going to teach me how to train those horses. I would have never guessed where I am going when I was little, but i like where I am going. This is not my hobby, this is my lifestyle.
So to all those people that have said to you it's your hobby but you know it's not just a hobby, you have to keep working for it, never second guess what you are going for, and always believe in what you want to do, and believe in yourself, and others will fall in at the right time. What you love to do is never "just" your hobby.
