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Last night whilst watching the 3rd/4th playoff of the World Cup – I found myself in an inadvertent quasi high-school reunion.
There were 7 of us and more than half of the group I have not caught up with in years.
What a pleasant surprise to see such old faces, all grown up!
They say people change, but yknow honestly – I don’t think we’ve changed much, if at all – deep down, the same pimply, scrawny and adolescent schoolboys jostling each other, trying to one-up and cheer each other on.
Boys will be boys.
You know, it’s funny when you look back and remember your youth.
In the school days life was so much easier wasn’t it?
Wake up, catch the train to wait for the bus to take you to school. On the way, trying not to stuff up the conversation with that cute girl in the grade below.
Once at school, structured learning in a controlled and secure environment.
Recess. Lunchtime. All a blur – until at 320pm, the bell sounds and relief, elation and jubilation mixed into one as an outpouring of teenagers come charging out to the bus lines.
Day by day, week by week – it continues.
It was so easy then. Life is easy! I CAN do this! I’ve got it down pat.
Until inevitably, we grow up.
We advance through the grades, we sit the finals, we graduate and embark our journey into the big bad world.
And what a shock it is eh!
No structure, no one telling you what to do! Freeeeeeeedom!
But wait… we only find out later that with great freedom comes great accountability.
Don’t show up to your lectures? No problem, it’ll reflect when you take your end semester exams.
Don’t want to work today? That’s fine – plenty of others who want your spot.
Don’t want to get out of bed? Well, there’s one less day on your clock.
It was up to us to find our way.
Through it all, the world shapes and molds you into the person life wants you to be.
But you know, above it all – we persevere through. We don’t know any better.
I guess I’m older and (marginally) wiser now to say that I try and be a bit more productive each and every day. To try and squeeze a bit more juice out of each week.
And too often as each week winds down, there’s a tendency to look back onto what you have achieved – for some of us it’s a story of same old, same old.
For others, it’s about incremental change – little bits and pieces here and there to make a productive difference.
Yet for others still, the week will be enormous in its impact, a life goal accomplished or a seismic event which rocks to the very core.
None of which you’ll have any idea at the beginning of the week and the “Monday Blues”.
But sometimes, we need perspective.
To reflect back on how far you’ve come.
From our glory days of younger years, through the age of finding ourselves, navigating through life events, through college, uni, 21st’s and graduations.
Through first jobs and first loves.
Through engagements, weddings and passing the baton to the next generation.
We’ve come a long way eh.
Which is why we need to reflect.
To revisit the glory days of our younger years – when we were younger, more sprightly and oozing youthful exuberance.
We had dreams and goals to accomplish, people we wanted to see, places we wanted to visit and above all – we had promise and potential.
We wanted to find out who we are as a person.
Have you found that out yet? Is it the person you are today? If not, who did you want to be during your formative years? What’s stopping you from being that person? Be awesome to hear your thoughts – let me know by commenting!
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