2 Ps: Presidents & Passion

I cannot endorse strongly enough the value of discovering one’s passion project. Here I am on a Tuesday evening with a quick-and-nutritious dinner cooking on the stove. I’m making it late because there wasn’t time after work before I logged into an enriching writers’ meeting on Zoom. I did have time to check my library account to see where in the world was my reserved copy of President William Howard Taft biography?!?

The library notification informing me that the book was, in fact, ready for me to pick up had gotten buried under the weight of 50 non-essential emails. I decided I would take myself to the library after the Zoom to pick up the next book in this now-beloved reading project.

Why is this such a big deal?

I’ll tell you. I have an achy-breaky heart most days because of several on-going and not easily solved circumstances. My shoulder is both frozen and sore, and this aggravation is entering the six month. The weight of these two alone sends me to bed early most nights. But tonight, I had to take possession of the next bio. Reading President Theodore Roosevelt had been a slog. 500-plus pages. Impressive research. I got lost in the details every few pages because all of the information was brand new.

This project energizes me, anyway. Learning about US history through the lens of the presidents has sparked interesting questions and propels me forward. When I started with Rutherford B. Hayes this winter, I was interested in getting to Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, and Calvin Coolidge. I read other work that often refers to Wilson’s administration, and I feel like I’m missing crucial context. The deeper into the country’s history I get the more fascinated I am.

I have set a lofty goal: read from Rutherford B. Hayes to Herbert Hoover by December 31, 2026. This goal spans one dozen presidencies, which is more than I have read in a single year since I started this project 14 years ago.

I am approaching 30 years in the workforce doing a combination of customer service, public relations and communications, and donor relations. Each are separate disciplines, but in every one, I have remained a generalist. I have lamented that I didn’t find interests that I could specialize in. For this reason, my passion project gives me a sense of what it’s like to become a specialist—if only as an amateur historian. Understanding America the Beautiful and America the Broken and America the Hopefully Rebuildable brings me such joy and satisfaction. It also reinvigorates my patriotism.

I have such hope in this energy and momentum that I have already reserved the Woodrow Wilson biography, so I don’t have to wait a week for its availability. I also know which titles I’m going to choose through Calvin Coolidge. I am setting myself up for success and look forward to reaching Herbert Hoover before the ball drops, and we usher in 2027. Stay Tuned.