Frame: Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

This weekend an FoSB remarked that she is worried that she loves her career- which revolves around rowing- too much. She’s afraid she’s too passionate about crew. (Shortly after, another friend remarked that she thinks unicycles are showy…it was that kind of weekend.) My friend started out as a rower, took a job out of college that she didn’t really enjoy, and then quit to move back into what she was really passionate about. Now a coach and a recruiter, she is phenomenal at what she does. Her intellect and drive aside, it’s her love for what she does that allows her to excel in her career. In fact, I have several friends who have taken their zeal for crew and parlayed it into extremely successful roles in the rowing world.

my oar in the regatta - port for life!

There’s a lot to love about rowing, and I remember when crew was my life. There are many mottos in the rowing community, but one of my favorites is: “We do more before breakfast than most people do all day” – and I still think that’s true. This weekend, back in the boat for the first time in two years, surrounded by water, trash talk, and adrenaline, I was reminded of how intoxicating the sport can be.

I remember waking up at 4:30 in the morning, using muscle memory to pull on my clothes, drive to the river, and put the boats in the water. Some dark mornings, sitting in stern four and letting the sound of the water rouse me, I’d feel like everything I had done since the last time I’d been in the boat had been meaningless.  Everything else was a space filler, a distraction until we could get back on the water.

alums win again!

Crew is not my life’s passion, but I was passionate about it for a long time. I don’t think my friend should be concerned that she feels so strongly about what she loves. I think she should feel extremely lucky to have found that thing, and proud that she has turned her passion into her career. For myself, I’m ecstatic to have turned my loves- food, writing, and now teaching, into my career. You can have your cake and eat it too.

have your cake and eat it too, especially for breakfast after a regatta

And now, some gratuitous shots of team mascot and the boathouse.