One wednesday afternoon...

One Wednesday afternoon, the sun was shining, children were playing outside and the Ice cream van was set to appear on the street any minute now.
On paper, it was the perfect summers day with just a slight breeze for comfort. Bliss.

And then it happened.

My mum got the phone call. The phone call which, after all the surprise and the 'hello, how are you doing?' comes the 'I've got some bad news...' sentence.
What do you say after that sentence? What do you say, what do you think, what do you even feel? This isn't supposed to happen, and if it does, its only meant to be in movies, in novels, in the newspaper, not on the other end of the phone.
So, what do you do when, what seems to be the perfect Wednesday afternoon, is shattered by that phone call?
Everything is happening so fast. Everyone is growing up, growing old, growing apart. But there are still only a few things in life that has the power to re-connect people after what seems like centuries. And one of them is that phone call. People come together, people reminisce and people offer their condolences in a small attempt to show that they care.

It's hard not to put things off for another time. Another day, week, month, year... but only God knows how our lives are going to pan out, so putting off a plan to go and visit someone may just be the wrong thing to do.

I didn't see it coming, one Wednesday afternoon in mid-April.

"Is ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be? Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’? Not to me."

JK Rowling

'To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all'

'Well June told me its her wedding party today but I haven't even been invited!'
'Yeah you got invited but I didnt! Should I still come anyway...?'
'How long will you be then? Tell me what to do, so I'm not hanging round lenton for half an hour like a lost sheep!'

Don't you just love it when you're on the bus and you can hear people on the phone. Naturally you find yourself eavesdropping and listening in on conversations you probably shouldn't be listening to. I think it's interesting though. I mean these people you sit with on the bus, you have no idea who they are or what their stories are.  All you know is that they need to get from A to B, just like you do. 

You don't even pay attention to half of them, apart from the really weird ones, you know the ones that stand out... The old woman that insists on starting a conversation with you. That old man sat at the back of the bus talking to himself. The mother with the screaming child in the pram. The cool kids on the bus who seem to rule the back seat.  Only those ones stand out.The ones that play up to the stereotypes.  But what about the woman sat behind you with weary eyes, the man on his way home from work to be greeted by an empty home, or even the lady planning to gatecrash 'June' and her wedding party.

Ok, I can't believe I'm just rambling on about people on buses... But do you ever not think what someone else s life is like? I mean, we must interact with thousands of people all the time, over the phone, in the shops, at the gym, on nights out, at uni, at work etc. I'm just fascinated by people and different lifestyles I guess, some times I see people and I find myself wanting to know more about them. Not in a weird creepy stalker-ish kind of way though. Just in a I wonder what happens in other peoples lives kind of way. Like how we ore obsessed with the lives of celebrities...
I guess I should stop fascinating over other peoples lives and just concentrate on my own.

The story of the Tortoise and how he cracked his shell.

My mum used to tell me this children's story she heard in Nigeria all the time when I was a younger and thought I would share it :)

One day, there was a meeting in the sky where all the Birds would gather and discuss. Discuss ideas. Discuss life. Discuss.
The Tortoise, although slow and steady as he was, wanted to join in on this meeting in the sky. He was intrigued. And so, he gained the help of a friend he trusted to fly him to this elusive meeting in the sky.
The meeting commenced.
And what an amazing sight it was for the Tortoise to behold. All these different birds, all different shapes, sizes and colours.
Greens, blues, whites, yellows, reds, blacks, oh it was a beautiful sight indeed.
The meeting in the sky, it was beautiful.
Now, the Birds where not mean creatures, they did not seclude him, or kick him out, or taunt him for being different. In fact, they welcomed him, they greeted him, and asked for his name.
Now, the Tortoise, although slow and steady, was not a foolish character, 'my name is All Of You' the Tortoise stated proudly. All Of You? What an unusual name. However, the Birds, did not have much time to linger on how unusual it was as the food had arrived.
The head Bird, a beautiful, striking, colourful Peacock, with what seemed to be all the colours of the world in his feathers, stood and declared, 'all of you, eat the food'. And so he did. Oh, he ate. All Of You ate the food until he could eat no more, he ate until there was none left.
Anger had began to brew amongst the birds, 'how can he eat all our food?!' 'That is not fair!' 'Let's kick him out! they cried indignantly.
The Tortoise looked around, 'what?! He said, 'All Of You eat the food', my name is All Of You and I am eating! Now leave me alone!' And he continued eating. The birds, tired of this game he was playing, lifted the Tortoise out of his seat, took him to the edge of the cloud they were in and dropped him out of the sky.
All Of You fell through the sky and landed hard on his shell, causing it to crack in several places all over. But he did not mind at all, for he had eaten.

"Either you deal with what is the reality or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you." - Alex Haley"

This quote is so relevant to me at the moment.
Yes, I have an endless pile of essays to write, books to read and seminars to prepare for and no, I don't really have as much time as I would like to complete everything but I need to stop letting this take over my life. I am living it so I have to deal with it, not have the situation deal with me. Because deadlines will come and pass and I need to learn the best possible way to react to them and become more proactive rather than letting it overwhelm me all the time. It's not like it's just me against the world. If other people can do a Law degree, then so can I. Its just going to be hard, but what did I expect? A walk in the park?

Peace