The Power of Passion

When I think of passion, I think of the color red- bright, fiery, and zealous, filled with an intense longing for someone or something...

In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant”. It appears so effortless how he can with merely two sentences, aptly pen down and frame the multifaceted concept of passion. Passion, it is one of the rarest traits on earth that has the ability to propel one to greater heights; however, the lack thereof can similarly allow one to sink to despair, broken and hopeless with no drive to move forward. In my opinion, passion is a force so great that it overcomes all other negativity in life; it is a drive that is innate and self-sufficient for one to achieve great things, and an intense form of love and desire for a person.

Passion is not mild love that expresses tenderness and kindness towards the target of affection, but instead an intense emotion which makes one yearn for the other. While love takes all form, is patient, mild, sacrificial, and kind, passion on the other hand penetrates deep into inconceivable aspects of an individual’s life; it is energetic, powerful, strong and intimidating to those who fail to meet the intensity of this fearless emotion. It has the ability to heal or destroy a person, and the capacity to touch lives or hurt others. Albert Schweitzer, a German philosopher wrote, “Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being”. Indeed, passion is contagious among like-minded people. When two individuals come together and form a bond of their own in the very initial stages, passion consumes them. They become crazy for each other, they pine for each other’s presence, and they become enveloped into a world that belongs only to them. That is more than affection and pure fondness. It symbolizes a love that surpasses one’s own expectation, one that reaches deep for the soul, even if it is just for a fleeting moment. Yet passion for the unattainable can also lead to obsession or arouse hate, pretty much opposite of the intended outcome passion sets out to achieve.

Passion spills over to many aspects which influences and fuels an individual to strive for a seemingly unattainable goal, and to walk a journey to an almost unimaginable destination. It is limitless, and fiercely fervent in existence. Passion is a love for life, the means to an end for things which are impalpable, a desire so strong that it rises above love in terms of intensity, resembles obsession and even lust for another person.

Snippets of my writing I wrote last semester... that I wish I can always stay true to.