Passions:

"The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover something you love that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you, and gives you a sense of meaning, joy and passion."

"Learning to play an instrument"

Learning to play an instrument is an experience that every person should try at least once in their lives. Some say that playing an instrument is like therapy, makes you feel relaxed, and makes you forget your problems. Yes, it is true, but this definition makes the whole experience too simple. An instrument is a challenge. Learning how to play it is definitely not easy, and it is not meant to be. Playing is actually a mind game, a game that requires time, patience, feeling as well as thinking. If you don’t want this, play Guitar hero.  Playing my guitar is to challenge myself. I have to dare. Every time before playing I keep telling myself things like “I bet I can play that song better this time” or “Can I make this sound on my guitar?”. Of course I fail, but that is just part of the game. The failure is actually one of the main reasons I keep pushing myself to try again, try different things, different sounds and rhythms. And that is the fun of it. 

By Andrey Moreira 

 "Glorious labour; A merchant of the market"

My passion is journalism. Also, I’m interested in photojournalism. I studied journalism and photography, that’s why I am doing this project with photos. Moreover, I wish to continue this for the rest of my life. In my opinion, the most important thing I want to express is the labor in markets. If we want to live, we have to do something like make money and overcome frustration. I believe I can find the meaning of life by taking pictures of merchants labouring in the market. In the market, many merchants are labouring very hard. They could be someone’s mother and father. They are so glorious and must be beautiful people who sweat to make valuable things, so I will take pictures of their working life. I’d like to show my passion to the masses by photography. What a glorious sacrifice. On Sunday I went to Steveston Fish Market. There are many fishermen. Among the people who work in the market, I saw one special family. They were fisherman, wife, and son. Carefully, I took a picture of them from far. Father and son were working at that moment.

By John Kim

"Lightist"

My Passion

Members of Lightist

My passion is taking pictures. When I was a freshman, one of my friends introduced me to the club named ‘Lightist’, which is a photography club. ‘Lightist’ is a combination of the words ‘Light’ and ‘Artist’, so it means “Artist who uses Light”. I think it’s really cool. The members of ‘Lightist’ are very generous and kind, I really like them. They are the most passionate people I know. In Korea, we usually travel around and take pictures in famous places. When we plan to take a picture, we have a plan to take pictures of something like the place, the time, the cost ...etc and then just go! It couldn’t be better! I feel free when I go to take pictures with them. Before I joined this club, I was really stressed and it was really annoying. I was depressed everyday and I needed something special. Taking pictures is a special thing for me! I feel better than before, and also I’m getting brighter. If someone who is very close to me feels depressed, I always recommend them to take pictures and your feelings will get better. That’s why it’s my passion, and I hope everyone feels like me when they take pictures.

By Ji Su Son (Claire)

"Traveling"

Traveling. I like traveling because it gives me not only good feelings but also new experiences. More specific, if I go traveling, I can get rid of my stress. It helps me to forget all of my worries. It helps me to feel free. For example, I went to Cebu 4 months ago. At that time, I tried scuba diving for the first time. When I saw everything under the sea, it was awesome and it made me more comfortable. I have always gotten good feelings from traveling. Secondly, I can get many kinds of different experiences through traveling. I usually make a plan to go on trips. But sometimes, if I make a wrong plan, it causes problems. For instance, when I went to Las Vegas, I was supposed to use a travel agency going to the Grand Canyon. But the information about finding the agency was wrong. So I made the decision to rent a car. I was able to control time and places to take pictures or rest. As a result, I think that the situation was better than it would have been. Finally, even though, sometimes, traveling causes situations that I don't expect, it always makes me happy. And I think that the wrong plans were also valuable experiences for me. I am getting to learn about the world from my trip. That's why I'm passionate about traveling.

By Jayden Lee

"Snowboarding"

In Whistler  ~ December, 8th, 2013 ~

  My passion is snowboarding. I learned about snowboarding  for the first time from my older brother in 2009. He lives in Nagano which is a snowy city. Therefore, he has gone snowboarding every winter for seven years. Every winter, I go to my brother's house with my friends and we enjoy snowboarding together. Snowboarding requires concentration in my mind and if I have unpleasant things I am able to escape all of my stress. I like trying new techniques even when new techniques are scary, I like the feeling of accomplishment when I can do new techniques. It makes me feel awesome!!

By Misato Mito

"How do you enjoy the winter in Vancouver?"

 I hate cold but I like outside activities sports because I like to play winter sports which are skiing, snow boarding and ice skating. For me, winter sports are thrilling, exciting and dangerous. When I ride a snow board or ski, I feel alive and thrilled. I love exercises but I hate cold and don’t like to go a fitness club. It’s boring. You can exercise in the gym. Inside exercise is that yoga, stretching of body, barbell that is good sport making heath. So I like to play outside sports which are winter sports

By Boyoung Kim

"A passion for photography"

When I was young, my mom always took pictures of me even when I was crying. After that she gathered every picture to make an album. I think it's amazing.Nobody remembers when they're a baby and it's difficult to remember everything in our life. But if we make an album, we can see what happened in the past. That is attractive to me. So I became interested in photography naturally.My mom gave me a camera as my birthday present. That  was my first camera.I always brought it with me and took pictures daily. I began to make albums when I was 11years old. I print pictures and attach them to the album and include  a short memo.The memo is very helpful to remind me of the situation in the past.So I have 5albums and they make me proud of my photography efforts.

By Marie Jung

"Scuba diving"

Do you know scuba diving? The feeling of floating in the water? Imagine yourself floating in a large aquarium on the inside, fish surrounding you.. The sea is quiet, comfortable; I can listen to the sound of my own breath, floating in the water just like a baby in the mother's womb… No more pressure. That’s why I enjoy blending with the sea. Do you want to learn how to scuba dive? The most important thing is to apply to a diving program, learn more knowledge about the sea and equipment, continue practicing, and then I think, day by day, you will do better and love scuba diving.

By Hanna Chen

"Poetry"

My passion is related to the poetry we can find in the awesome random things that surrounds us every once in a while.

Warm and starry nights

In one hand, a beer

On another, your skin

And in my mind,

That smile on the corner of your cheek

Which suddenly disappears, sometimes

Gold is

Getting home after a

Rainy day

To find a boy with his guitar under a lamplight

Or sitting at the dinner table

After a day full of tears

So I can get full of old songs with John

While there’s still the smell of hot meal

Love to find a place in the world

(When there was no room for me)

In your arms, that

As usual

Were my shelter.

By Raquel Komura

"World Cup in Brazil"

In the next year the FIFA World Cup is going to happen in Brazil, it’s the best competition the world, the event which every soccer fan is expecting, it will quicken the heart of everybody in the world and all eyes of the world are looking to Brazil.    Every week many people around the world write about all the things that will happen in Brazil and many of them are concerned with our preparation and what kinds of problems the millions of soccer fans will find. Today we are facing delays with the deadline of three stadiums, the worst one is the stadium where the opening match will happen, in Sao Paulo, because an accident in its building, it will not be ready until April. Another problem is with infrastructure in the host cities, some of the builds planed in the beginning will not be executed and the fans will not have the comfort promised.
    Beyond some problems with the World Cup’s planning and its execution, we have the well know Brazilian issues. In our Hospitals there are many people in the aisles, our transport system doesn’t work so well, our airports are always facing traffic jams and the violence is a big problem, but although all kinds of problems, we are experts in big and wonderful events, every year we have lots of international events that get together millions of people, and the host cities will be prepared.
    So as a Brazilian guy I am concerned too, because I know all the hidden problems of my country, but I also know the ability of Brazilians to manage the problems and to find alternative ways, so I can say: “Don`t worry, every things gonna be all right and we will have the best world cup of all time”.

By Evandro Hoepers

"Fitness"

When I was a middle school student, I went to a fitness club with my older brother. That was the first time in my life and I was very excited. At that time, I always exercised with my brother. There are several reasons why I like my fitness time and why my passion is positive.  First, fitness time is only for myself. No one disturbs me. Second when I feel physical fatigue, I feel alive. Last, I can escape from all of my stress. In my country, I tried to go to the fitness club, if I had time. In Vancouver, I always go Steve Nash fitness after dinner every day. Sometimes, it’s very tiring and difficult, but it always makes me smile.

By Dong Joon Kim

"The Meaning of Travel "

  I love traveling not because of the beautiful views or different locations but because surprising things happen on the way and the mind becomes more open. Doesn't matter where I go, every travel change me more or less. Such as I've traveled around Taiwan by motorcycle for a week. Although Taiwan is just a little island, I could still feel the different cultures between every city. I found a lot of problems on the trip, but every trouble became an interesting story after I got through it. For example, my partners and I were riding in the mountain, and we found out that a tire of our motorcycle had become flat. It would be dangerous if we kept going. So we stopped by the side of the road and tried to fix it before the sky turned dark. Out of our surprise, we fixed it by ourselves. We feel so proud of that. And that is an interesting experience to share with others. After that trip, Taiwan has had different meaning for me from then on. I love my country more. Even though that  trip wasn't far away from my home, that changed my view more than my trip to England. The distance of travel is not the important thing. I  wish I could keep traveling all my life, no matter how old am I. Even if I spend a lot of money, it makes my life and soul rich. It's a good investment I think. 

By Kitty Wu

                                                                               

                                                                                                                            

"Plays make me a passionate person." 

When I was a first-year student of university, my uncle said I should join drama club. So I decided to join drama club. The first time, I didn’t have interest in plays. I only enjoyed meeting people and drinking lots of alcohol with my friends. But after I finished military service and came back to drama club, I got a role in the play “A Streetcar Named Desire.” That role awoke passion in me. When I acted my role, I was wondering about human emotion because humans have lots of emotions and sometimes I asked myself, “Who am I? What kind of human being am I? Why do I do what I do?” I enjoyed my role when I acted in the play. Fortunately, I participated in the national convention of plays, and I won’t forget this experience. That is why I have passion for plays.

By Darren Kim