Still seething over Bonsoir's comments about me tbh.
sparkybabe, where those meant to be comparisons? Because they just don't work if they were.
My best mate, let's call him Pete, had a steady job and a cool bachelor pad. He drove a sports car, was not short of girlfriends and had a great social life. All was going well until he had an accident. He got thumped in the face which burst his eye, shooting his lens out. The other eye was already quite bad because of a degenerative disease but this good eye had received a transplant and he had 20:20 vision, until now.
He became blind, moved into his parents, had to leave work, couldn't drive and for a while his life stopped.
They couldn't save the eye so they worked on the other one. It was too far gone to receive a transplant so they developed an artifical lens, like a contact lens but much, much thicker. This took 18 months. During that time he did a lot of thinking about his life and where he was going.
He had sight after a year for around 2 weeks every month whilst they fiddled with the new lens. He decided to take a TEFL course, then ESOL. He had a mad idea that he could get the highest qualification and open his own language school, but he wanted to make up for lost time. He realised that he'd been wasting his life doing 9-5 and just ticking over. He realised how valuable life was and he wanted to see as much of the world as he could.
He passed with flying colours and as soon as the lens was sorted, he applied and got a job teaching English at a Moscow University. Why Moscow? He had studied Russian history as part of his degree and spoke a little, just the basics. So he went out there. He'd never done anything like it before. He loved it. He spent 18 months teaching English. He met a wonderful woman but he wanted to travel more, so he applied to teach in Vietnam. He asked her to go with him. When she agreed he asked her to marry him.
He's now in Saigon teaching English and writing for the Saigon Times. He plans to open his school in Georgia where he will marry his girlfriend.
He's so far travelled through Kiev, Uzbekistan, Krakow and Ho Chi Minh. He's living life the way it should be lived. He's taking risks yes, and sure those risks could prove to be disastrous but he takes the rough with the smooth now because he knows just how precious every minute is. Ok, he didn't nearly die or anything but he did have an epiphany of sorts. He realised that doing an office job day in and day out, meeting the same old people, visiting the same old places and getting into a routine was not living out his dreams or ambitions and this gave him the shove he needed.
He has thanked the man who punched him because it changed his life for the better.
So I say, go for it, take those risks. Be prepared for things not to work out, be prepared to take the rough with the smooth and have fun doing it because one thing is for sure, you might regret not taking that chance, but you will never regret having that adventure.
If you PM me I can give you the link to my friend's blog so you can read more.