Have you ever had a moment, where you maybe had a thought, or you had an idea about something, and in that moment of it happening, it wasn’t a big or profound thought at all? Actually, the moment itself seemed so small and insignificant that you didn’t even give it a second thought, but when you looked back on it later, it meant everything to you.
For this reason, this particular moment you have relived over, and over again in your mind, because, there was something well… Different about this moment. Looking back, it actually had a profound effect on you and how you live your life to this day, and you had no idea that it would have such an impact at the time.
I wouldn’t necessarily call it a defining moment, which I will talk about another day because I have had a few of those also, but these moments are small and seemingly insignificant at the time, but later you realize you had some profound realization. I personally like to call them “WHOA moments”, because you have a thought and you just think “whoa, I never thought of it that way before…” Or “whoa, I just realized who I want to become…” Or “whoa I know what I need to do to be happy”
The best thing about these moments, is they often come at times when you least expect them. I have had a few of them now in my life, and they always seem to come at the best moments (usually they occur for me when I am looking at an incredible view though.)
But the thing is, you can’t force them. You can’t ask to have one of these moments. You have to just let it go and know that they will come, although sometimes you won’t realize you are having one till much later on. But if you are prepared and enjoy self-reflection, you may find something you never knew about yourself and you’ll possibly be absolutely blown away by what you discover…
I dunno, maybe it is just me, but I have these whoa moments often, where at the time they seem incredibly small and insignificant, but later on, I realized just how powerful it truly was. Here’s a story about the day I decided to travel.
I tend to do a lot of self-reflection, and I often go back into past memories and try to make sense of them. For some reason though, I keep thinking back, to this one seemingly insignificant moment I had when I was growing up, at the time, it just seemed like a passing thought, and it didn’t really matter. But to this day, I can’t stop thinking about it.
So this one day, when I was in grade 8, I was walking to school. Nothing unusual, I walked to school every day. It was a peaceful and calm morning and the sun was rising.
I would walk to school just after 8 am every single day for a good 3 years back in Junior high school. There was barely any traffic or other people for that matter along the path I walked, and it felt at times that I was completely alone in the world.
However, I remember this one moment very well, because it basically made me see the world in a completely different way from that day forward.
I remember it was a beautiful spring day, I was walking past this small nature area, and I came to a stop and just stood there gazing out at this picture perfect pond/ scenic area, and I remember looking at the beauty and simplicity of nature. I walked past this very pond every single day, and I never paid much attention to it, but this day I couldn’t help but look at it. It looked like it was shimmering almost, the sunlight was hitting it in just a way that the entire area looked so bright and happy. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
Even though there was no one around me, I understood how abundant this world was of resources, and opportunities and places that I could go and see. In that moment, I imagined the downtown of my city, full of thousands of people hurrying on their way to work with all their stupid worries and problems. And in that moment I realized that nothing really mattered. All of their problems, all of my problems that I was dealing with, none of them mattered to me in that moment.
“There is so much out there that I want to see and do. The world is so full of incredible opportunities, and I can’t wait until I finish school so I can go take on this thing called LIFE. One day I will be out there traveling all over the world, without a worry in the world.”
I knew all I wanted to do was explore and see all that I could see, do all that I could do, and be all that I could be. The possibilities seemed endless. The world was so big and I wanted to go see all of it!
Looking back to that day, I remember that moment so vividly, at the time I didn’t think much of it, but I think that it was the day I decided that I all I wanted to do with my life was go and see this incredible world.
I was 14 years old when this moment happened, and I full of anticipation and excitement to go out and make something of myself in this world. I couldn’t wait! I just had to finish school and then I could go make this world a better place, I was going to change the world!! I think that we all think that to some extent, we all think we will change the world, and then something calls life comes up and tries to take us down into the darkness…
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