Moments Of Appreciation Vol. 1: A Group Of Drunk Teenagers On A Park Who Will Never Know How Good Their Life Is
I have these moments of appreciation all the time. Often with friends and family, always with nature, wildlife and the great outdoors, sometimes with new experiences and occasionally something completely random. Well I’m going to start sharing them in the ‘Life’ category, partly for my personal diary sort of thing and partly so other like-minded souls can potentially share a moment of happiness too.
This is the first post in an ongoing series titled ‘Moments of Appreciation’. Wherever possible I’ll try to capture things on video now that I know that I’ll be doing a running series, but this one is a moment from one of my first days in Sydney after emigrating from the UK.
An early morning walk today brought back the memory, so I’m going to share it with you now.
I usually do a 60 minute walk to the gym every morning and as part of that, I often walk through a park. I remember when I first arrived in Sydney from the UK and was seeing and experiencing everything for the first time and this park was one of the first parks I walked through within a couple days of arriving.
It was a warm, sunny day and I remember thinking how bright and colourful and green everything looked. I also remember being amazed at how well looked after it was. No graffiti, no vandalism, nothing broken, clean toilets, nice seating areas and paths and some exotic birds roaming around.
There was even a cool bar with barefoot bowls and a beer garden overlooking the harbour and a cricket pitch with benches around the outside where you can relax and watch the match. Perfect place to spend an afternoon.
The main photo at the top of this post is of the basketball court and this was taken this morning because it reminded me of a moment of appreciation I had shortly after arriving.
When I first arrived in Sydney from the UK, I walked through this park in the day as mentioned above but I also walked through it on a warm, sunny evening one Friday.
As I was walking the path, I saw in the distance, a large group of teenagers.
I was fully expecting to get a load of shit at best or jumped at worst as I walked past them all, but as I reached the group I was in awe.
There was about 50 of them, all sat around in little groups on this basketball court (main image at top of the post).
They had picnic blankets, drink, food and music and they were all just hanging, getting pissed and having a laugh with jaw dropping views over the harbour watching the sunset over the water. They weren’t causing trouble and there wasn’t any litter or graffiti and everyone seemed to show respect for their surroundings.
I thought back to when I was a teenager, sat under some shitty shelter in parks, in the dark, rain and cold, getting pissed on cheap cider. Good times!
My mind started to wander and I thought about how good it would have been if we (everyone who used to hang around together as teenagers in the UK) all grew up here and this was our weekly hang out.
It was at that moment I realised that they (and my kids if/when I have any) would never realise how good they’ve got it. Having grown up here with the parks, the beaches, the sunshine, the lakes and all the rest of the things this great country has to offer, it would just be ‘the norm’ and they wouldn’t know any different.
This would be the same if we all grew up here too.
I felt lucky that I had the ability to appreciate everything in a way that probably none of them could, and although I had a great time growing up, I still couldn’t help but think how awesome it would be if we all grew up here.
So I paused for a second, taking it all in and appreciating the moment and the thoughts that came with it before heading on to my destination with a happy smile on my face from the latest new experience.
Peace out! 🙂
