The Passions That Keep Me Going

Something that is extremely important to keep hold of, in life in general and most especially when suffering from a severe chronic illness, is your passions. With being ill since the age of 6 and severely so with M.E since the age of 13, it’s crucial to keep hold of what you’re passionate about, for all sorts of reasons really, but most importantly to give you something positive to think about and some good to take over your mind, away from all of the every day, 24/7 chaos of living with a chronic illness.

For me, it’s mainly been photography. My love for photography started at a young age and as I’ve delved into the subject further, the more my love for it has grown. It, of course, can be exceptionally difficult to keep up with my photography as much as I’d like to, due to being confined to my bed 9 times out of 10, so an awful lot of the time I may wish to be doing some photography work, but unfortunately am simply not up to it. This is something that continually gets me down, as I’m extremely eager to keep creating.

There are all different types of photography that I’m interested in, most especially; landscape, botanical, music (which unfortunately I haven’t been able to pursue for a few years) and architectural. I’ve also been delving into film photography more too, which I’m very much enjoying. But, when I haven’t been able to pursue the photography I ideally would like to, I had been working on a photo story simply called ‘My Photo Story’, which depicts the true reality of living with a chronic illness and the light and shade that, that journey brings.

I’ve managed to set up a website, which is currently a work in progress, but on there is some of my favourite pieces of work I’ve photographed so far, including a gallery for ‘My Photo Story’. You can find it at- http://www.hannahobrienphotography.org/

Apart from my main passion of photography, I’m extremely passionate about music and have been ever since I can remember. Music has got me through so many dark times, simply by putting on my headphones, turning the music up and trying to forget about all the pain and darkness. I’m an avid record collector, a favourite thing of mine is the simplicity of getting out one of my most loved vinyl and playing it on my record player; the sound is unequal to anything else, I’m wholeheartedly a lover of vinyl over digital and personally think the quality of the sound is undebatable.

I’m also an avid writer and have written for several music blogs over the years. This was one of the catalysts in pushing me towards starting this very blog, the combination of my love of writing mixed with wishing to spread much further awareness about my illness, meant there was no question as to what I should do, starting my own blog seemed like the logical next step. And I very much hope to continue to write and grow this blog with more frequent posts and updates and to, of course, get the word out as much as possible.

It’s incredibly important to continue pursuing and holding onto your passions despite whatever situation or circumstance you may find yourself in, keep firm hold of anything that makes you smile, gives you hope and just generally keeps you going each day.