Читать книгу A Head Full of Everything - Gavin Oattes - Страница 8

Think back to when you were 5 years old. Everything was magic. Even school, right from day 1.

I was reminded of this when my own son started school.

‘YOU'VE GOT A SON, GAV?! JUST HOW OLD ARE YOU?’ We'll get to this later….

My son's name is Kian and at only 5 years of age he served up a perfect – and very much needed – lesson in life. And I'll never forget it.

His first day at school was, bizarrely, a Friday. It was a two‐hour taster visit and then he'd start his first full day the following week. I woke up on the Monday of that week to discover Kian stood beside me at 6 am dressed in full school uniform. I reminded him that his first day was in fact Friday.

‘I know,’ he replied firmly, ‘can't you tell what I'm doing?’

I thought about it and replied, ‘No idea!’

‘I'm practising.’

He practised on Tuesday, he practised on Wednesday and of course on Thursday. He forgot on the actual Friday, but we'll let him off as he was knackered from all his early mornings, but that's not the point.

I woke him on Friday, and he leaped out of bed, threw his uniform on and came sprinting into our room. My wife and I smiled weary early‐morning‐parenting smiles.

I told Kian that I'd never seen him this excited before in his entire life. He agreed wholeheartedly.

‘That's because I've never been this excited in my entire life.’

There was a brief pause before he delivered the best bit.

‘And I've been alive for five years!’

‘In fact Dad, I'll show you how excited I am. I am THIIIIIS MUCH EXCITED!’

Please picture a 5‐year‐old with his arms stretched so wide they're almost touching behind his back. Shoulder blades touching.

As a teenager, you can probably remember being 5. Pretty much everything's exciting at that age, so to be beyond ‘normal’ excitement and to have ventured into ‘THIIIIIS much excited’ – we're in ‘Christmas Eve/Disneyland’ territory. Or ‘Disneyland on Christmas Eve’ territory, something of which I have never experienced but I can begin to imagine just how exciting this is.

That morning, my wife and I had a wonderful discussion about how, in that moment, there were thousands of young kids all waking up feeling the same – buzzing, pumped and ready to go. Raring to throw themselves into the next step of life's adventure. The same adventure that you're still on.

We continued to talk about how amazing it is that some people remain like that throughout life. Every single step of the journey, we meet them, the infectious energy they have, the buzz.

And then we had a really weird discussion about how some people never feel like that again. Something goes, fizzles out, vanishing entirely for some.

Could it be that some people peak at 5?

There is, of course, a downside to taking the next step in your adventure. Fear. Worry. Stress. Anxiety. You are excited and yet it's tinged with what might go wrong. It might not work. Failure is an actual thing. You know because, as a teenager, you've experienced it.

But when you're 4 or 5 these feelings can be somewhat new and confusing.