Passion Projects
Every year for the last 8 or so years (excluding the COVID blur of course) my good friend and I head wayyyyyyy up north to a small town near Bancroft. This isn’t that untypical for a Canadian living in Ontario, especially in Toronto, but what is unique is that we do this in November.
Yup, sunny, warm, tropical northern Ontario in November.
Why? Mostly because pain and surviving the harsh climate makes me feel alive, since as we all know I am such an adventurous and dangerous fellow… The real reason is passion, and in this case, a passion for racing. Yup, rally racing. We drive 4 odd hours to stand in the cold (with bouts in a heated bus, we truly are bougie) and watch people drive their cars fast through the woods and we love it!
Now, we definitely go because of our love of the engineering and skill involved, but there is another part to it as well. There has to be since why would I write a blog post here about anything that is not profound? That other thing is PASSION.
The price of admission
Every year when my friend and I make it up to the Rally of the Tall Pines (thats what it is called FYI), the first thing we like doing is finding the people who are there with unexpected cars. Every year of course there are dozens of Subaru and a few Evos, those are to be expected. What we want to find is the car that two buddies probably scraped some money together and are here to race because they love it. They are unlikely to win, unlikely to even place, but thats not the point. They genuinely just want to do this, they have a love for it and were willing to dedicate time, money and frankly, sanity to do so.
Driving a rally car for the weekend means weeks of work before that to put in a roll cage, remove unnecessary weight, and prepare to drive this vehicle at speed through the woods.
Then, after alllllll that work, you spend 48+ hours in a non-stop grind to actually race. Day one is 18 hours of driving slowly through the routes to map it all out for the drive on day 2, which is another 12 hours of driving at speed. In 48 hours, 30+ hours are driving! That is not something that is a passing hobby to me, you have to LOVE this, the price of admission (Hey! That’s the section title!) is unbelievably high.
Alright, what’s the point of blogging about this?
Mostly because I have a bet with my friend that I could make a blog post that was interesting around our yearly trip, but luckily for you, I love making seemingly simplistic things connect to larger concepts.
Why is this interesting? Well, passion is not just for racing. The takeaway for me is that passion can drive people to unbelievable things, and those unbelievable things don’t have to be some super mega star (I get it Taylor, you are like, super famous), unbelievable things can be taking a Volvo station wagon and driving it like a crazy person in northern Canada, which I have seen.
Passion can drive people to do more than they expect, and do so with a smile. I think that meaning comes from passion and being able to express your passion directly will have you living a more meaningful life.
The weekend for me is invigorating and causes me reflection, what am I passionate about? Is there a way to work in my passion?
Luckily, I have had an extremely blessed career (all two jobs!) in that I have been able to, my first job was to bring the internet to more people for less money (Thank you Vaxxine! It was truly and education) and my current job of taking on the big banks and making a better financial future for Canadians at KOHO. Financial security and access to the internet are probably the two things I care about the most for anyone I know.
I know not everyone can work in their passion, but if at all possible, find a way to express your passion. I need more reasons to stand outside all day in the winter.
Post Cover Image from: Timothy Eberly