Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Lost

Most people associate being lost with either jungle, desert or some other remote area. While this maybe the case in many adventure-themed movie, being Lost, I may argue is slightly more complicated than that. Within my 15 minutes-inspirational shower, I identified 2 aspects with regards to lost. I had come to this conclusion after I imagined some simple scenarios.


First image that came to my mind was the image of a sailor, or a pirate, whichever you may prefer, sailing in the middle of the sea. Can we call them some lost people just because they're pretty much nowhere in the vast blue watery part of earth we conveniently call the sea? I dont think so. They may not know exactly where they are, but they more or less have this idea in mind of where they are going. No, these guys arent lost.


The second thing that came to my mind was this stand up comedy by Jerry Seinfeld, about the supermarket (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOmSQfYB1iE). He basically describes that people tend to walk in purposefully into the supermarket having clear picture of what they're going to buy in the market. Though once you walked down that many, many aisle, something gotta catch your attention and eventually you ended up miserable spending twice the time you initially planned to spend shopping, with not that many more things that you actually need in your basket. Maybe, these people are lost.


It then became clear to me, something that I think very, very trivial yet I overlooked in the beginning. All you need to not get lost is to get a direction, to get a purpose. Maybe in life, or even on your little trip down to the market. In turn, to define your direction, maybe you should start by asking yourselves what is your desired end point, where do you want to end up 5, 10 years down the road?


Those of you who have gone hiking or navigating with a map obviously realize that having a direction is not going to get you through that woods or to the other side of the mountain. One key thing that you need to know is where do you stand in this very moment. So the next set of questions to ask to yourself in order not to get lost are the kind of questions that could identify where exactly are you in this very moment.


Knowing where you are, and having a clear sense of direction are the 2 things that I have found to be quite trivial yet important for you not to get lost. Of course, it is in the end a personal choice between getting a direction, a purpose and move forward or to just follow the crowd, fade to the background and be lost like one of those supermarket wanderers.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Hotimi, or is it Rotimi?

I met Tanuri two days ago, interesting guy, always smiles. He told me a story behind the name of his good, Nigerian friend, the fifth child that was born in his family. Quite tragically, all the previous baby had not survive the delivery due to some reason that Tanuri never mentioned. Alright, so the mother named this little boy Hotimi (or Rotimi, or even something else, I cant quite remember the name) which means: dont die on me. The boy live, grew up to be a fine man according to Tanuri.

Similarly, I hope this blog also doesnt die too quickly. It's nice to have one, I guess. Aite, special thanks to Heidi Nadhira for without our small chat this wouldnt be possible hahah.