I might seem like I am trying to be a "jack-of-all-trades". But in my defense, my husband is worse. Since we have been married, he has gotten obsessed with flight school (and thankfully switching back to an IT major), mountain biking, learning to captain a sailboat, completing an Ironman, rebuilding our house bit by bit, getting a wood smoker to cook every meat he can find, and lately he is most obsessed with the finer details of light bulbs and saving electricity. I'm leaving out dozens of others, but you get the idea. There is always something new that he eats, sleeps and breathes.
Since we got married, I have loved three hobbies. I fell in love with all of them in high school and never looked back.
I love math.
Most people cringe when I say that, but I do! I love that it all works perfectly together. I love that the right answer is always the right answer. None of the subjective grading that English and History and every other subject else have- we can all agree on the answers to math questions, and that makes me happy. I love figuring out the reason why everything works in math. And most of all, I love helping others figure out the reason why everything works. I love seeing someone's eyes light up when, after struggling through a difficult math problem, they truly get it. You can see the confidence flood back into their face, as a small smile grows bigger. I'm a little addicted to that.
I love sewing.
I tend to think that my sewing love is a combination of my parents, in an odd way. My mother taught me a love of sewing, but she is a quilter (which isn't my thing, to be honest). I don't actually remember learning to sew from her; I just remember sewing with her. I remember that even by middle school, I was the only one in my Home Ec. class (may those rest in peace) that knew what they were doing. I remember sewing for hours with her to create my prom dress, or that one time I decided to sew shorts for myself and all of my friends. My father, on the other hand, is an engineer, who I know was a touch sad that his daughter didn't follow in his footsteps. He was always the one that figured out the projects in our house, weather that was arranging how the luggage would best fit in the trunk or how to build a platform for 50 ceramic Christmas houses that could be taken apart and stored in the attic every year. And now, what I love about sewing the most is figuring it out. I love trying to invent all the steps I need to go through, inside out, to create something. I love having a vision of how I want it to look, either of my own creation or a cartoon picture of what my child wants to become, and making it happen. I rarely use patterns anymore, because they take part of the fun out of it, and I rarely obey them even when I buy them. I tell people that sewing is my therapy, and I mean that. When I have a day that doesn't go right, I head down to my sewing room. Even when I am ripping out a seam for the third time, sewing is my happy place.
I love photography.
I fell in love with photography my first year in college, to be accurate. My brother gave me a camera (film, mind you) for my graduation gift. I had so much fun using that little camera to take pictures of our college freshman shenanigans! The next summer, when I applied for any summer job I could find, I landed a job at a one-hour photo booth (may those rest in peace). My lab trained us to not only develop the film and print them out, but to look at each one and "fix" them if we could. I would lighten and darken, alter the color, and anything else that we needed to do. And looking at thousands of pictures in one summer with a critical eye got me started on the idea of what made a good picture really good. Now that I have kids, I love the challenge of chasing them around to get that perfect shot with a natural, laughing smile. I love learning all of the details about lighting and camera settings. And I love the power of Photoshop, where I can spend hours making an imperfect photo look like a perfect photo that might have come straight out of the camera that way. Most of all, I love having pictures of my family's life. I love seeing their cute little faces and remembering all of the details of that day.
I never set out to make businesses out of any of these. I assumed that I would be a math teacher, and that would be that. Math tutoring came as a way to fill my withdrawals once I chose to stay home with my little ones. Photography became a small thing I did as a favor, and then for a small fee, because I want everyone to have affordable memories of their families that they can hang on their wall and smile at every day. And sewing became a small business when my daughter begged to learn how to sew, and I started crafting lessons for her. I'm biased, but I think everyone should know how to sew a little bit, so I wanted to spread that love to all of her little friends!
My children are my true obsession, and so I'll never be the best in the world at any of these hobbies. My goal, instead, seems to be to infect others with my passions and convert them to love what I love. Maybe you will be next?
