Teresa

Dear Passion,

To be blunt, you’ve changed a lot. I still recognize bits and pieces of you from the past, but I can’t say with certainty exactly who, or what, you’ve become. You started wild and outside the box: astronaut, princess, and part-time archaeologist all in one. I still find myself struggling to follow or chase after what might be false dreams or what might actually be my gut telling me to just go for it. I’ve never been very good at distinguishing between what’s real and what’s only temporary when it comes to you.

My reason for writing to you today is because I felt inspired by all those leadership chats, the alumni dinner and spending time with incoming freshmen who have the entire world ahead of them (although I, at only 3-4 years older than most of them can be said to also have my whole life ahead of me). For example, the leadership chat with the BP of China Boeing, Ian Chang, reminded me of the difference between one’s job and career. Also, the leadership chat with Director Li taught me that your decisions are more important than your efforts. This is a tough one for me to swallow as I can easily put 110% effort into anything, but I am also quite easily the world’s most indecisive person.

I want to ask you: why are you so elusive? I know of people who crossed paths with you very early on in their lives, yet here I am still searching for you in your honest form. Perhaps I’ve been looking in all the wrong places, or perhaps I’m being much too cautious in my search and its’ about time I took greater risks with you. And given your tendency to avoid me, I don’t expect you to write back – at least not any time soon. But if it’s not too much trouble, I do ask that you give me clues; that you send me a sign or some slight hint of where you are and just what you’ve become. I’ll be waiting.

Your truly,

Teresa