Skip to main content

THE ROAD TO UPINGTON

Recently I was on a road trip to Upington, a town in Northern Cape in South Africa, to a friend's engagement party. Upington is known for being one of the hottest places in the country. And as hot as it was, and as far and as long as the drive was, I decided to just take the task that was before me with the eyes of curiosity and wonder of what lies out on the stretch of road. I always love going on adventures and travelling to places I've never been (a very effective way to keep life always interesting and fresh).  A full nine hour minibus drive I finally reached my destination. First time here, and I arrived at the “wee” hours of the morning, 4 a.m. to meet my ever-so-special-and-crazy friend whom I have never met but have been friends for six years (he was counting) via Facebook alone.

There was no catching up to be made either than on my sleep, then by seven in the morning we hit the ground strutting. I didn’t plan to do anything except eat and watch to loving people get engaged, but it seemed that my friends had other plans for my first time visit.  Skipping the unnecessary bits of information, the event was just amazing, and played decorators assistant (which was never my plan) and just enjoyed the unfolding of the evening.

The inspiration to write this piece came as I was now making my way back home with some backpackers (got a lift back to Joburg) and it hit me.

 Life really is a lot like a road trip. (I know it has been said many times and but it’s always good to revisit what you always know, in order keep it fresh and alive). Again, Life is like a road trip. Some roads are easier to drive. Some are not. Some roads are longer, others are shorter. But the design of the vehicle that's on them is always powerful to handle any terrain, and  The vehicle I am referring to is the human spirit. It is up to each drive to decide on which terrain he will put it through so as to see its resilient power, or if he will just allow it to parish in the dusty deserts of inhibition or ignorance.

The roads (to success and joy) are laid before you for you to trod, and each one works with the same road rules. Keep your vehicle road worthy. Drive in the designated area (if applicable). Keep to the speed limit (if applicable). And more importantly – Be vigilant.

You are always in the driver's seat of your life. And you always have to assume responsibility for whatever happens to you and how you handle the unforeseen occurrences. You may not carve out the path as you may wish it to be, but it is up to you to fit your vehicle with the necessary essentials. Good tyres, good oils, good gasoline, and good travelling companions and  good mindset and focus on your goals to make each of your journeys pleasant and the destination as smoothly reached as you could make it.

“Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night all.”  ~ Bon Jovi

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FAITH

Is there ever a time where its reasonable to have faith? Like really. When is it reasonable to have faith? Because if you think about it, whenever its reasonable to have faith it is no longer faith but just rationalisation.. When you have reasons to have faith its just that, reasons. Faith has no reason either than you really wanting something. Faith is not based on any concrete evidence, ever. Faith is the decision of a mind to maintain a disciplined positive expectation of a desired outcome.. And most of us fail in this because our faith fluctuates.. Usually we want reasons to have faith.. The most interesting part in life is that most of who we desire to be is dependant on faith. Just choosing to expect the best and that is independent of any religious beliefs or philosophy. Its a consistent act of a person to choose faith over fear, fear over not having concrete evidence to back it up. Faith is the complete surrender of the need to control things and to have it all f...
Post a Comment
Read more

SIGNIFICANT FIGURES

On the bus to work I was busy go through my budget this month in my head. And as I was doing that, I was thinking of how we always have to make arrangements for unforeseen expenses, so I was thinking along the line of "roughly it will cost me this much." However as I had that thought another then just came up, and that was there are no insignificant numbers. Numbers that have no bearing to the total sum whatsoever. As an engineering student in my first year I got introduced to an unfamiliar term, "significant figures", quite frankly I am surprised I still remember this.In engineering and science we have to account for the significant decimals places that are there in a number. (Google this). For example if a number has the highest numbers of significant figures meaning more numbers after the decimal we take that as the numbers of significant figures we must round of to. So if you have a number that is 2.0003, those zeroes are significant because they can/will...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE TRUTH ABOUT POSITIVE THINKING

Positive thinking doesn’t work for most people because of one simple truth and that is – Thinking is a skill. And most people haven’t mastered The Art of Thinking. Just because you can inhale air in an out of your lungs doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to breath effectively, remember how as a  kid when the doctor instructed “breathe in” and you would actually make a whizzing sound when in haling because you wanted to indicated that they are breathing, because you clearly knew there was more to it.  So you see, it actually is a skill. I was inspired to write this article tone because of a post someone had forwarded to me. It said… “…Positive thinking is offered up in the U.S. as a cure for cancer, a path to untold riches, and a sure-fire way to engineer your own success. Indeed believing that success depends upon one’s attitude is far preferable to Americans than recognizing that their success is the outcome of the tilted scales of race, class, and gender. As Eh...
Post a Comment
Read more