For years now, possibly from as far back as the day I learned to speak, I've begged my parents to watch films with me. Night after night, I would pray for a bad night of television and back when I was younger, it was easier because we only had the bog-standard terrestrial TV channels: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Since coming in to the digital age, my mum or dad have always found some programme to 'start' watching or a random repeat of some show they used to love. So we haven't spent many nights watching films.
It's my dad really; he's always against putting a DVD on or watching a film. But tonight I've realised why. It's taken me nearly 20 years and a massive amount of films for me to reach this conclusion. Escapism. To take 1 hour and 40 minutes, or sometimes 2 hours, to watch a film...all we're doing is escaping our own lives; we're watching somebody else's world, through their eyes, feeling their pain and conveying emotion which comes from a built-up fantasy world which doesn't even exist.
And that's fair enough, sometimes we do need to escape.
But tonight I've realised that when we escape our own lives for a couple of hours, watching a film or box-set, we're missing out on the world WE live in. This may not make sense to you, but look at it this way - we might miss the evening news, a new television series or an episode of a soap opera. And at the time it might not seem a big deal, nor a problem. We live in a world which revolves around the televsion; day-to-day conversations are based on what happened last night on TOWIE, or who killed who in Eastenders and, to you, it may not matter to be part of the conversation. But, it's good to know what's going on in the REAL WORLD.
I'm struggling to explain what I mean... I've zero common sense and when this is combined with my standard of general knowledge, which is at rock bottom, I come across as pretty thick. But my dad, he knows everything. So, I'm beginning to think that spending my time watching the News, boring (educational) information programmes and being part of the world I live in (rather than one on the screen) can only teach me things.
We need to live our lives instead of trying to live through a character.
Saturday 26 May 2012
Friday 18 May 2012
What's the answer?
Life is like a game; we make choices, we take risks and, in many ways, we're trapped.
As we go through life, our choices and decisions get harder. From being given the choice between red and blue socks at age 3, before we know it we're being asked to decide what we want to do with our future. And shortly after that, we're made to decide where we want to live, who with, how many kids we want and what we want to call them. Life's a game of swings and roundabouts, mistakes and lessons. But, it all comes down to the player; yourself. We can listen to people and take advice, but at the end of the day, there's only you who can make the decision. And it's you who has to face the consequences.
Who's to tell us that we made a wrong decision? Sometimes, I think we need to have made the wrong decisions so we can move forward and learn the lesson.
Life would be so much easier if somebody told us what to do, or showed us what consequences our actions would have. There's been many a time where I've been so scared to make a decision, that I've missed out on something or hurt somebody, or hurt myself.
I don't believe our lives are pre-programmed, like the game we play on our computer, but they are shaped by the decisions we make. And that's why we need to make them tactfully.
As we go through life, our choices and decisions get harder. From being given the choice between red and blue socks at age 3, before we know it we're being asked to decide what we want to do with our future. And shortly after that, we're made to decide where we want to live, who with, how many kids we want and what we want to call them. Life's a game of swings and roundabouts, mistakes and lessons. But, it all comes down to the player; yourself. We can listen to people and take advice, but at the end of the day, there's only you who can make the decision. And it's you who has to face the consequences.
Who's to tell us that we made a wrong decision? Sometimes, I think we need to have made the wrong decisions so we can move forward and learn the lesson.
Life would be so much easier if somebody told us what to do, or showed us what consequences our actions would have. There's been many a time where I've been so scared to make a decision, that I've missed out on something or hurt somebody, or hurt myself.
I don't believe our lives are pre-programmed, like the game we play on our computer, but they are shaped by the decisions we make. And that's why we need to make them tactfully.
Wednesday 2 May 2012
Another chapter
Its coming to the end of another year; well another academic year at least. Despite paying, what seems like, £4billion a year to study at uni, we only seem to spend about 2 weeks a year sat in a lecture theatre. But that's life. As us second years prepare for a year of library days and dissertation break-downs, the freshers are gearing up to actually do some work and the third years are departing...which makes me a little sad!
2 years in to university seems like only 2 weeks and we've only half left of what we have already done. This time is going to fly! And I'm not going to lie, I'm panicking.
As I take a look at the past two years of my life, the best two years of my life, I feel buzz and excitement. And when I look to next year when we'll pack up our flat, say goodbye to some of the best friends we could ever have made and go back home to where we came from, I feel sick. The experience has been life changing, in fact, I didn't for one moment think I'd even enjoy it, never mind feel this devastated at the thought of leaving it all behind.
But that's when I realised...life works in stages. Just two years ago we all felt the same when we left secondary school. We were set in our ways, had our own little groups of friends, had the safety of the family home and, the majority of us, had our mothers to change our beds. But we took a leap to the next step and I, hand on my heart, wouldn't look back. Everything which has happened, good or bad, has happened for a reason and I've learnt more than I could ever have imagined; friends, relationships and the things I should've already known - cooking (if you can call it that), washing, making beds and cleaning bathrooms.
One thing I'll never learn is to brush my hair. So as I finish the last third of my university life, I'll do everything to its full potential, take risks, laugh loud, party hard and make sure I cherish every moment. The tears, laughter, work and even more hard and heavy cleaning lessons to come will be remembered forever. And I'll never regret anything that felt right at the time.
Nobody knows what's around the corner but looking at the step I took from school to university keeps me feeling positive about what could possibly be next!
2 years in to university seems like only 2 weeks and we've only half left of what we have already done. This time is going to fly! And I'm not going to lie, I'm panicking.
As I take a look at the past two years of my life, the best two years of my life, I feel buzz and excitement. And when I look to next year when we'll pack up our flat, say goodbye to some of the best friends we could ever have made and go back home to where we came from, I feel sick. The experience has been life changing, in fact, I didn't for one moment think I'd even enjoy it, never mind feel this devastated at the thought of leaving it all behind.
But that's when I realised...life works in stages. Just two years ago we all felt the same when we left secondary school. We were set in our ways, had our own little groups of friends, had the safety of the family home and, the majority of us, had our mothers to change our beds. But we took a leap to the next step and I, hand on my heart, wouldn't look back. Everything which has happened, good or bad, has happened for a reason and I've learnt more than I could ever have imagined; friends, relationships and the things I should've already known - cooking (if you can call it that), washing, making beds and cleaning bathrooms.
One thing I'll never learn is to brush my hair. So as I finish the last third of my university life, I'll do everything to its full potential, take risks, laugh loud, party hard and make sure I cherish every moment. The tears, laughter, work and even more hard and heavy cleaning lessons to come will be remembered forever. And I'll never regret anything that felt right at the time.
Nobody knows what's around the corner but looking at the step I took from school to university keeps me feeling positive about what could possibly be next!
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