Addario’s life is filled with conflicts including actual war conflict and personal and emotional conflict. In part III of It’s What I Do, she talks about her conflict with making a profit from others’ misfortune and oppression. In this section, Addario talks about shooting refugee camps in new ways that would attract the eyes of new readers. As a photojournalist, her job is not only to capture events happening around the world, but to capture them in a way that can hold the attention of an audience. These images from a place of such conflict created paradoxical beautiful scenes and colors and were requested as fine-art prints for thousands of dollars each. Addario found herself in a moral conflict when she was making money off of these people’s conflict and terror.

Was it right to elicit a profit from conflict of others?

This conflict can be made relatable to the audience because Addario conveys her inner struggles and moral dilemma of the situation in a way that makes her readers understand that none of her decisions were easy but these images were ultimately worth producing because they helped to spread awareness of the refugee crisis by compelling readers to take a closer look and ask questions.

To convey beauty in war is a very powerful statement for Addario to make and this is one of the many reasons for her success as a photojournalist. It is important to understand the dilemmas she faced daily. I can relate to her inner conflict especially when thinking about my passion blog. Sometimes, I am conflicted when addressing my dietary needs to others and advocating to get gluten free food provided. Although I know that by advocating it will not only help me but other gluten free people down the road, I still hesitate because of the trouble it might cause me.

Part III of Addario’s story contains numerous external and internal conflicts, but she perfectly names the section “A Kind of Balance” to show how important balancing conflict and the eventual outcomes can be.

When reading It’s What I Do, It was incredibly easy to find myself lost in the images Addario was portraying to her audience. Scenes of war and terror fills the pages of her book, but one scene in part 2 was incredibly vivid and memorable for me. The chapter is titled, “Please tell the woman we will not hurt her”, but all that was racing through Addario’s mind was the thought,

“I am going to die.”

In this scene, This seen is so powerful because through all of the chaos, confusion, and terror, Addario can’t stop thinking about all of her cameras and gear that is now in an unknown location. Despite the complete fear of being discovered as Americans and being killed, she is still focused on her career and passion and not just focused about herself. This is an especially important writing strategy to think about when writing my passion blog. The deepest passions are found within a person when they believe they could lose it all in a second.

What makes you hold on and appreciate your passion and career is what sets it on fire and gives you a deeper purpose for pursuing it. Through Addario’s countless encounters such as this one, she never loses focus on why she came in the first place: to document critical situations in areas around the world. Her passion is to make sure that these stories are heard, and even if her life is put in danger, the stories are worth the effort. Although I have never taken death-defying acts to pursue my passion, I remember times when I took the extra effort in pursing it to make it more important to me.

“But when I am doing my work, I am alive and I am me. It’s what I do. I’m sure that there are other versions of happiness, but this is mine.” -Lynsey Addario

At this point in my first week of college, finding my passions and things that make me happy can be overwhelming at times. Coming from a high school graduation class of less than 100 to a class of 8,000 is completely terrifying.

So what am I going to pursue as my passion in college? What makes me happy? In high school I played a sport every season of the year ranging from field hockey, to swimming, and track. I am a runner, I love making food for my family, I am above average height (6’2″ to be exact), and I love the outdoors. I also have Celiacs Disease (fancy way of saying I’m gluten free) so basically all of the signs around campus advertising “free pizza” kind of suck. And that’s basically me in a nutshell (my favorite nut is a cashew, in case you were wondering).

Anything that keeps me active and in a role where I can help others makes me happy. Also, I can find humor in some of the simplest situations so that keeps me happy too.

I’m thinking of either writing my passion blog about being gluten free (and all of hilarious and tragic stories that come along with it) or exercise and healthy eating. Either way, they are both aspects of my life that are very important to me and make me who I am. Let me know which one you think I should do!