What is your Passion?

Have you followed your passion or have you given up? What inspires you? Who has inspired you that helped to influence your life?
   Last night I watched a PBS special on Edgar Allen Poe. I have had several influences in my life and I was strangely surprised to be  inspired by Poe's life story. He was a person that constantly struggled to fit in. He lost is mother at an extremely young age to T.B. and two other motherly influences after. He was greatly effected by deaths caused by tuberculosis. Growing up, he continued to struggle to fit in anywhere, never having a secure environment to rely on. He knew his mother had been a singer and always searched for a comforting female for guidance and influence. As he struggled, he always wrote. His wife was a big influence and encouraged him into the wee hours of the night offering support with his writings. He kept on writing and kept on writing - never giving up on his passion. He did not get noticed for his writings until he wrote The Raven and acted out on it at a writing gathering of poets and writers. It was at this event, while speaking and adding character to his words, he become recognized. He had in-born talent, like his mother to speak out his words in his own way. Poe never gave up on his passion despite all the hardship he had.
   God has given each and everyone of us a certain gift, a certain talent, a passion that we are born with. What is yours? Who helped you shape your life?