I remember sitting in front of my laptop on a cold December evening writing my very first entry into this blog as if it was yesterday. And I can still recall the worried and excited thoughts swimming around in my brain as it attempted to construct a blueprint of my impending training regime which would make me physically fit enough to run to Rome.
The speed (or more accurately) my perception of time is drastically increasing as I venture further into my twenties. What seemed an age to me five years ago is now merely a moment as the relentless current of time pushes me towards old age and eventually,death. Time has no friends or foes and no matter how many times people try, it will never become humanities servant. Although we may eventually dramatically slow and perhaps even prevent the aging process, our feeble minds would implode with the knowledge and pain of eternal life.
To this day I still have a vivid memory of sitting in a Secondary school History class and celebrating London winning the 2012 Olympics. That night I attempted to to imagine what the 22 year old version of me would be doing whilst the games were being played. I am only a year away from what seemed like a unfathomable amount of time to me 7 years ago.
Facing up to our own mortality is something many of us rarely do.Which is understandable. From an early age we have been conditioned to "hush hush" the topic and distract ourselves with nonsense. Death it seems, has become taboo. Our only connection with our own mortality comes when relatives pass away or new ones enter the world. With new scientific and technological discoveries being implemented at an alarming rate,our meetings with death are becoming more and more infrequent.
Many ancient cultures with their dramatically decreased life expectancies, living standards and constant conflict viewed death as a natural consequence of life. Every day men would return home with dead animals slumped over their shoulders or siblings would perish to famine at an early age. Religion relieved many fears by attempting to explain the reasoning behind the chaos of existence but the enlightenment gave rise to a modern society so obsessed with attempting to avoid death that we paradoxically have now began to avoid living!
Me Messing Around at a House Party (2009)
I remember when this Photo was taken, I was in my second year of College and had a rough plan to go travelling, I wanted to join the Royal Marines as an Officer but first needed to pass the January Exams. In the two years subsequent to this being taken I have done things I could never have predicted but I still remember this whole dam night like it was yesterday!
I'm sure many of you have done the " if you only had ...... to live what would you do". I love asking people I have just met or do not no very well as this often reveals their inner child to me. The one that was lost sometime during the ages of 14 when the claws of society gripped, and then shredded every single dream they every had in front of their very eyes. I watch as peoples eyes light up as their whole lives ambition's spill from the tongue.
If nothing else, watch this video of a truly wonderfull man and his approach to life.
Once most people finish with their intinery for their grand finale I say to them.
"So go ahead and do them!"
It is strange that we somehow plan our wildest dreams and fantasies to the back burner as we trundle through the theatre of life. They are ignored until suddenly we are shoved a stopwatch down our throats by a doctor with 3 months until your Funeral. The reality is that for many of us our last day on earth will be spent in a Hospital bed unable to move with tubes escaping every orifice in our bodies. The last thing we would be able to do was go Sky Diving or propose to your Girlfriend. The time for action is now.
If you have simple Dreams then all they require is simple action. However if you have complex and grand dreams then they require months if not years of dedication to accomplish. Our culture is obsessed about finding short cuts to solve solutions. However in the cold hard world of reality only one thing yields results and that's hard work and achieving your dreams are about as hard of work as it gets! There will be times when you feel immense anger and loneliness, times where you will be hurt from betrayals and failures even times where you feel like giving up. But these very emotions, during the times where you feel at your lowest point combined with your ability to dust yourself off wipe the tears away and continue towards your goal regardless provides the magic formula to achieving your life ambitions.
I have found that in the pursuit of a dream people tend to find their true purpose. The more people that laugh, ridicule and rubbish it gives it more validation to become a dream worth accomplishing!
The sands of time make no mistake in erasing our minuscule fleeting visit to Sit Com: Planet Earth. So its best to start making as many footprints as possible, so future generations of people can follow in your wake.
Peace and love boys and girls.
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