Pursuing Multiple Passions

Hello kind krafters!


This week I want to talk about passions, and the reality of juggling multiple passions and projects. It seems in this day and age that everyone is always busy. Busy with school, with volunteering, work, children, activities, and projects. That busyness has come to define our modern era, and as a result often tends to be seen as a given and therefore goes unquestioned. Feeling busy has for a long time now been part of my life. For the past three years I’ve worked the same job, full time in the summer and 24-30 hours per week through the year. I go to school, having always taken 4-5 classes on top of my work hours. And I volunteer when I can, collecting donations at some Feed Nova Scotia events, raising money for the Ecology Action Centre or helping to plan programs and events for them. This busyness can often leave little time for pleasure and the pursuit of my own passions which exist outside of the cycle of work and school and volunteering. As a I wrote in my last post, a few years ago nature became a way for me to begin to push myself out of this cycle. As nature became a tool to ease me and make me feel more confident and calm, it also sparked within me a desire to move away from a cycle of work and lectures and feeling as though I was just clocking in volunteer hours. As I began to spend more time outside, I also began to realize that I don’t want to spend my life working inside in an office and I don’t want to always feel so busy with activity that does not align with my passions, leaving me little free time to actually pursue my personal goals and desires.

Taking some time to help out a new little friend whose wings were waterlogged and stuck together.
Photo by the wonderful paddler Eleanor Kure 

​This summer for me has been an exercise in putting these thoughts and realizations to practice. While I’ve kept my full time hours, I pursued and happily was able to work a schedule that gave me my weekends free. I have also carefully managed my volunteer commitments, focusing more on one-day event support and being very clear in how much time I am able to give to a certain project. As a result, I’ve had a lot of wonderful and fulfilling free time to use and spend as I wish. I’ve written before about my internship project of mapping HRM trails. This is a perfect example of a project that I’ve allowed to take up a large portion of my free personal time, because it is a project that allows me to pursue my passion for the outdoors, fulfills me, and does not feel confining in any way when it comes to completing the work. However, this summer has also involving an effort to make sure I take a bit of time away from this internship project every now and then.

Pausing for a water break on a coastal ecology tour learning about cetacean mating rituals!
​Photo by Seacology By Kayak

​Another keen passion of mine is kayaking. Living in Nova Scotia, I am almost never more than an hour away from the ocean. Sometimes I take this fact for granted, but I do understand that a part of the person I am and will be something I will very likely always seek out in my life. A few years ago, wanting to be able to engage in water sports a bit more, and hoping to start kayaking in the lake with my dad, I took an introduction to sea kayaking course. This course was the Paddle Canada Basic Skills Course, and was the beginning of my love of paddling. Since that day two summers ago, I’ve kayaked on and off throughout the year, and spent summers heading out on guided sea kayaking excursions at East Coast Outfitters, a local paddling company, as much as my schedule would allow. I’ve been fortunate to experience sunset paddles, half day tours, moonlight tours, coastal ecology tour, and late night lake paddles over the past two years. 

       Photos from moonlight and sunset paddles in Terrance Bay, Nova Scotia, with East Coast Outfitters.

This past weekend on a whim I decided to sign up for the Paddle Canada Level One Skills Course. I had contemplated the course for a while, intending to register, holding off due to cost and the timing demands of my internship project. The Monday before the weekend course began I called in and booked my spot. I love sea kayaking and knew that to allow myself to pursue this passion further, I would need to gain more skills, more confidence, and more knowledge. It was definitely the right decision.

Paddle views from a half day tour. 

​The course spanned the course of a weekend, involving 7am wake ups, 8.5 hour days spent in the sun and salt, and a couple of tired evenings during which I usually fell asleep with my book open on my lap. But it was also one of the best weekend’s I can remember. I came home excited with the knowledge I had learned and delighted at having spent a full day in the sun and on the ocean. Over the course of the weekend I learned basic navigation skills, paddling strokes, braces, and technique, assisted rescues and self-rescues, and how to feel comfortable and confident on the water.  And I went into my work day on Monday sunburnt and a little stiff, but only wanting more and more. 

            Never forget to pursue your passions, sometimes they might just lead to views like this. 

Taking time to pursue your passions can be difficult and is not always possible. That being said, the act of doing so is invaluable, and offers a sense of happiness and fulfillment unlike any other.
         I challenge you all to take some time to pursue your passions, and not to be afraid at the multiplicity of your interests. Carve out a half hour to swim or hike, bike, draw, or write a piece of music. And then take a morning to paddle, run, dance, or make jewellery. And as always, don’t forget to tell me all about it!

Stay kind,
Niki