A Continuous Growth Called Passion

Jessica Jones, Dec 19 2019

Devin Rolfe, born in New Brunswick on May 22nd, 2002, weighed 8.719 pounds at birth. His feet were larger than all the other newborns in the hospital. A fact which his parents would remind him of as he aged. He was the first and last born into his family of three. On that day, he became destined to a passion that would guide his life. Born only knowing three things: how to cry, eat, and learn.

As he grew to a height just short of 6 feet, Devin became mostly made of limb. With a sweater and jeans, he looks like the average seventeen-year-old male. With a love for cars and a goal of becoming an engineer, Devin appears to be like everyone else in his town with a dream. However, he has something to keep him motivated: a passion for experiencing, learning, and knowledge. “My passion in life is learning. I feel empowered to make a difference.”

As most teens are unsure of their passion, Devin has a sense of pride in his awareness of his passion. “I’ve known ever since a young age, since I would seek out information more than others,”. Commencing in his years in primary school, he began to develop his passion. He found an outlet that supplied him with an endless amount of knowledge. As he spoke of how he used to explain to his parents all the things he had learned that day in school, his blinking slowed, as if he were back in that moment, reliving it. “I feel like those kinds of mundane moments really define the adults we all grow to be.”

He continues to specify that we are born with the potential to do anything like “cure cancer, build flying cars, or even create technology to allow animals to speak.” Devin spoke of the dreamer in him which has helped his success in pursuing his passion. “If you dream big from an early age, odds are you’ll eventually reach something worthwhile.”

His first memorable dream was created in middle school when his friends and him were discussing the stereotypical topic among males: cars. He can visualize the image that filled his young mind. “A cherry red Mustang that gets you out of speeding tickets because the police officer was too occupied with admiration to notice my speed.” Fast forward a few years and Devin managed to purchase his own car due to his part-time job at Kent’s warehouse. “My car might not be a Mustang, but my baby gets me where I need to be and does so in style.” After giggling at his own words, a hint of hope crosses his eyes. The Mustang dream will never die.

“I don’t think passion is ever really set. I mean, you change as you age. I am lucky to know my current passion as well as I do.” As he reminisces about his past passions, he realizes that he didn’t notice when his passions were changing until “one day you look back and laugh at your dream of being an astronaut, or in my case a superhero."

As he scrunches his nose, trying to reflect on his own childhood passions of learning, becoming an all-knowing superhero, and purchasing the car of his dreams, he mutters “knowledge is power.” A phrase that he lives by.

“I had to metaphorically water my passion every day for the last seventeen years. Some days it felt like I was watering nothing, but it was never nothing. There is always passion in a person’s life. They simply need to look deeper to find it.” Passion does not fall in front of you, perfectly laid out and ready to be understood. Passion is “scary and exciting and somehow makes life not as difficult.”

Passion is an intense desire or enthusiasm for something. It is born as a person is and continues to develop with its host. “I wish everyone could live by their passion every day of their lives. I believe that that is the key to happiness. I feel like a better person when I have more information because I feel that I can contribute more to my own life and the lives of others. Passion demands to be heard, even if you’re simply a kid because everything that has ever been created started as a thought.”