From folding origami cranes to painting flowers on cheeks, students had the opportunity to delve into the passions of others at this year’s Flow Day on March 20.

Flow Day was organized last year by English teacher Kate Lewis in conjunction with One Question. However, Assistant Vice Principal Scott Campbell and Russian teacher Betsy Sandstrom brought this activity back another year to tie in this year’s One Question: “How can we strive to discover and pursue our own passions despite societal norms and external pressures that would compromise our aspirations and dissuade us from pursuing them?”

In 34 presentations, students, teachers and guests presented on what brings flow into their lives and how they’re able to maintain their interests and niche in society. Topics ranged from community gardening, travelling, classical Indian dancing known as Kuchipudi, comics, ultrarunning and more.

“Flow Day is an opportunity to share passions with each other and to expose other people to the variety of different things that people do in the world,” senior Shankar Balasubramanian, a student who presented on the art of origami, said.

Similar to last year, many students responded positively to Flow Day. After visiting English teacher Stephanie Glotfelty’s presentation on “Genealogy: We’re All Stories in the End. Just Make It a Good One, Eh?” and Campbell’s presentation on “Humor in a Digital Age,” freshman Caroline Hatcher was excited to see the other presentations.

“I think it can inspire you to do something different,” Hatcher said. “I’m now interested in doing work in genealogy.”

While several hobbies and activities were covered during Flow Day, the purpose of Flow Day was to help students realize their own interests and not be afraid to follow their true “flow.”

“If you’re not into running, you can find parallels with anything–art, music, photography, writing. My hope is that you’ll find something other than your work and your day job that will bring you happiness and fulfillment and will challenge you in your life,” Jefferson Class of 1994 alumnus Keith Knipling said.