Throughout the course of my life, I have become fond of and had a passion for many

things. Some of the earlier ones in my life are what one would typically describe as childlike, or

unimportant, to name a couple of designations. These designations holding true in that these

things are what people commonly misconceive as passions: cars, motorcycles, video games, TV

shows; it’s anyone’s game to name them. A passion is not simply something that one enjoys but

rather something that someone has a strong belief in or a strong effort put into. The act of being

fond of that subject is either present or absent in the equation. The word “passionate” often

conveys a positive meaning, such as in the context: “I have a passion for antique furniture.” or “I

have a passion for music.” On the contrary, of course, there are passions that convey a negative

meaning. Examples of this may be: “I hate Lady Gaga with a passion” or “I have a passion for

being totally against gay rights” These passions are for negative causes, therefore not all passions

will be positive.

One of the major things I have always had a passion for is handicapped / disabled rights

and amenities. What sparked this passion for me is the fact that my sister in in a wheelchair and

the fact that my grandfather is blind, a problem that was inherited by my mother that I then

inherited from her. My adopted sister has non-life threatening muscular dystrophy, while the

blindness problem with me, my mother, and paternal grandfather causes an extraordinarily slow

degradation of the peripheral vision until it is totally gone, combined with night blindness and

difficulty seeing in low or odd lighting. It has always been a pet-peeve of mine to arrive

somewhere and not see a single handicapped ramp for my sister to enter the area. When she was

little, many daycares refused her rightful care because she was too much work. When I walk

around UNCC campus at night, half of the lightposts are out on my way to go exercise, causing

me to have to feel around with my feet and walk very slowly to get past the area. Walking

around in Cracker Barrel (due to the dim lighting) is a nightmare for me. People with even partial

blindness aren’t allowed to join the military, even in jobs that they could very well perform with

no legs and no eyes combined. Places and company policies normally just aren’t set up to

accommodate those who aren’t “normal”. I have a passion for increasing awareness that places

need to consider others, even if it’s a small percentage of them, when building structures and

maintaining areas for those who are impaired in some way. I have a passion for notifying

managers and owners of places when their property is a potential hazard or inconvenience to

people whose bodies cannot perform the standard of others’ bodies. It bothers me that certain

jobs aren’t available to those who can’t walk or can’t see. Some are logical, others are

manageable. It could be that one does not take care to notice these things until they are in the

right shoes. It could be that people just aren’t made aware enough of others’ common problems.

Whatever the reason may be, one day I hope to work toward making the world a better place for

the people who don’t get around like others. That is a heavy passion of mine.

Another passion of mine is correctly administered education. It is a topic that I finally

ended up writing about in my high school Senior Research paper, and one that I feel very

strongly about. The topic correlates the association between the aptitude of the teacher and the

impact that has on the students’ learning. Of course, as one would expect, the results turned out

to be that bad teachers spawn uneducated, unprepared students from their classrooms, while

good and excellent teachers create students who make better grades, better test scores, and are

ready for the next level of material. The simple fix would be to remove the horrible educator;

however, as the research brought forth, it is nearly impossible to do so because of tenure, radical

teacher unions, and the overwhelming realization that instead of being on the side of the

students, school administrations are increasingly on the sides of the teachers and employees

because “the adult world is more important”. This is one event that I could say I “hate with a

passion”. But my real passion on the subject is educating others on the fact that this occurs each

and every day. My passion is to stop it and fight against it until the day it’s just because students

are the future. Without properly educated students, there is no properly prosperous future for the

Earth. They are being cheated if they are being taught by a slack-off or just plain bad teacher,

and I believe that is one of the worst forms of disjustice that anyone could do to a developing

mind.

As can be seen, if one could meet me at the opposite end of these subjects, surely they

would get to know just how strongly I feel about them. I am too passionate about these two

things for them to be ignored when the thought or situation is triggered. I will not ignore the

problem, I will address it. This is the idea that the word “passionate” conveys. The strong belief

and activism in the passionate subjects puts down a powerful, striving connotation, and these

things would never be taken lightly.