Today is my 24th birthday. I am a pessimistic person at best and I admit the run-up to today (months back) I spent worrying – “I don’t know what I’m doing with my life…” “There are certain things I really wish I’d have done…” “I feel like I’ve wasted most of my life being a miserable git…”

I guess most of the time we’re just conditioned to remember the crap things.

But I guess in spite of all the rubbish things that have happened I guess I’ve still done some pretty darn amazing things – things I never would have imagined ever happening.

Learning how to code programs at an early age (before you ask, no I’m not a computer genius) – this was back in the early nineties when we had an Amstrad computer (anybody remember those? The kind where you had to load programs from cassette tapes? To use the games and programs (making the screen flash loads of colours), you had to type out pages and pages of code from a book (this might have been similar to QBasic? How do I even remember this stuff?!?!) I just used to copy out the code commands from this book without knowing what they did and everybody made such a big deal about it when all I did was shrug and say “So what?”…

They read my name out on Cartoon Network when I emailed them in to tell them Ed Edd and Eddy was (still is) my favorite cartoon (this was when I was 8 years old, back in 1999. For a hyperactive 8 year old boy who shouldn’t really be watching Cartoon Network (my parents were convinced it was making me a bit silly), this was a huge deal.

Reading the entire “Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire” when I was 9 years old. I can still remember when that book came out and how monstrous that book seemed (600-odd pages) but that didn’t deter me! (Although I had read this book before reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban, so the plot was a bit confusing *cackles*)

Reading ‘The Hobbit’ by JRR Tolkien when I was 10 years old. Big deal for me because I found the manner in which it was written a bit complicated (I still haven’t found the courage to start on the Lord of the rings trilogy!)

The moment I realised art and writing was my vocation, my calling in life. The long, ongoing, perpetual creative journey I have taken with my work.

The first time I watched a proper full-length anime (and Pokemon doesn’t count haha) which spawned a huge obsession with Japanese pop culture.

Having the courage to move to a different 6th form college to do my Foundation Art diploma when I wasn’t really enjoying the one I was attending at that time. Making something presentable in ceramics class (I had a go on one of those spinny-clay-turntable-thingies but my clay pot just imploded on itself so I stuck to making flat 2D ceramic pieces). Having a go at one of the glass blowing furnaces.

Volunteering – I’ve spent a lot of time in the past 6 years volunteering for a charity shop run by the British Heart Foundation. Met some really cool funny people. Discovering the joy of working with other people as part of a team. I currently volunteer at a public library but I’ve been there for a year and I’m beginning to feel like I should move on and volunteer some place else.

The friendships I made when I was at university – I met some of the coolest people ever and I think it’s safe to say I finally found the friends I wish I had back when I was at school. Friends who were brave (or just plain crazy) to stand by me during my worst moments.

Watching my favorite band Garbage perform live for their ‘Not Your Kind Of People’ tour. I have always enjoyed their songs and words can’t even describe how much I enjoyed watching them live.

Learning how to cook. Huge life achievement. Cooking something which actually tasted good, and was fit for human consumption.

Living in Seville, Spain for three months whilst I did a graphic design internship. Managing to learn a reasonable amount of Spanish (albeit tourist level) in a small amount of time. Meeting more amazing people, making more friends who were daft enough to put up with my awkwardness and moodiness. Travelling by myself to Granada for a weekend where my grandparents had taken me when I was a child (and not getting lost on the way!)

My grandmother got to see me at my graduation (this was a really big deal for me).

Teaching in Spain again for a month – while things didn’t end as well as I’d have hoped, I still in a million years wouldn’t have imagined teaching with my anxiousness. The best thing about this was having to deliver a presentation in front of the whole secondary school level on life in England – I was dreading this because the idea of public speaking makes me nervous and I stutter a lot but the presentation went off without a hitch O_O How did that happen?!?

Cultivating and still holding on to my sense of humour…My weird, strange, pessimistic, self-depreciating sense of humour…

Oh, and making some cool art along the way 😀

I guess the point I’m trying to make here is good things do happen occasionally. While I’m a pessimist who is convinced only bad things happen to me, some bloody marvellous things have happened. I guess the really crap things make the really good things more intense.

It’s inevitable that really crap things will happen, but I guess there will be a few more really amazing things. Even the small things.

So what are your finest moments? 😀