Friday 22 February 2008


I just walked away from a conversation of which the closing theme was self-improvement, the improvement of oneself and the improvement of others where we can. I know a dude who is, by my judgment, socially awkward. One of the reasons for this social awkwardness, I suspect, is his overprotective family. I'm awkward in many social settings but overall I'm confident enough to hold my own. For all I know I'm mistaken about this dude and he is perfectly happy with his situation and maybe his family has valid reasons for shielding him from society. Tomorrow I might be meeting up with him and my goodbuddy, Dean, and I are going to ask him how feels about his life and take it from there. So before taking up our hero capes and dashing to this dude's rescue we have to get our facts straight – there's no point in saving someone who doesn't need saving.

It's true what they say about one heading into the real world when you graduate from High School. This is my third year having completed High School and life has been rough and exciting all at the same time. University is like a real life simulation where you get all the hard knocks but with some cushioning. I admit that I'm a slow learner and that in the last two years I could have done more than I have in all the areas of my life. One important thing I did learn, and my God knows I'm still learning it, is that the choices you make have consequences and life does not let you run away from having to deal with your consequences. You decide to skip class and you miss a lesson or you go to class and sleep through the lecture, whatever you do there is consequence to be dealt with at the end of the day. I know people who never show up for classes and they still get better marks than I do because even though they're not on campus they're sitting at home grinding whilst I'm on campus playing with the ducks after class.

I want to be wealthy enough by age forty to buy a castle (blatantly assuming I'll be around for so long) and while I'm building my kingdom I want to live it up like a madman who's been told that he has only a few hours of life left. I want to fill my life with people who are a joy to be around; intelligent people, funny people and people who squeeze the life out of you every time they see you. I want to have meaningful relations with my family, as crazy as they are and I want to make life easier and more enjoyable for them. The great thing about family is that one has nothing in common with them but you still love them something fierce regardless. All-in-all I want to spend my life living it up like a madman who has been told that he has a few hours left to live. The best examples of the lifestyle I want to live can be found in Dean Koontz's books. His characters are given lemons (in the form of gun totting clowns sometimes) and using very charming devices they make lemonade (sometimes in the form of miracle babies).

In order to achieve this I must make choices of which the consequence is the lifestyle I crave.

But he that dares not grasp the thorn
Should never crave the rose.

- Anne Brontё, “The Narrow Way”

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