In Pursuit of a Good Quality of Life
It is quite fitting that the first post I publish on here is not only the description I put in my bio, but also my primary goal for the rest of my life.
‘2020 is the Year we never could have wanted, but one which we unfortunately needed’ — Praise’Gbemsiola
Whenever I think of the word ‘pursuit’ I immediately dote on that Will Smith film with his young son — The Pursuit of Happ’y’ness. I can’t help but remember Will Smith ‘AKA’ Chris Gardener, briefcase under arm, medical device in hand, frantically running from one sales appointment to the other. For some reason, I guess to add to the message of the film, he always seemed to be running uphill, no real sight as to what lied ahead, constantly dodging New York taxi’s, pensioners and their dogs, business men and their calls. If I close my eyes and think about it hard enough, I can still hear the treacherous horns of the impatient drivers, I can feel the sweat that has formed on his forehead and can smell the exhaust coming from the morning traffic. I hope by now I have convinced you to go and search the film on one of those illegal sites on the web, it might be too old to be on Netflix.
Now, it's no secret that 2020 has and probably will be one of the toughest years of our lives. How can a year be plagued with so much devastation, so much turmoil and confusion? And this is outside of regular events that occur; the loss of a loved one, breakups and breakdowns and anything else that often seems to go wrong during the course of the year and that can even be a broken down car. Your high and low moments are specific and relative to you, nobody can take that away and not a single person should! Outside of this all, the last year has helped put things in perspective for a lot of us. Its helped us understand what truly matters. And I feel the general consensus is the simple things are the best things. The things that money cannot buy, and if it can, thats not a bad thing either. Your freedom - freedom to speak, to travel, to socialise — your freedom to do whatever you want are priceless. ‘Oh gosh — I definelty miss that’… And this freedom, whether little or small allowed us to:
Freedom to Speak — support the racial injustice that continues to exploit the lives of young black people around the world.
Freedom to Travel — engage in Nasa’s mission into Space.
Freedom to Socialise — indulge in the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme: who knew Nando’s could be a cheaper date than it already is!
Either way, there has been some highlights from the year, and certainly things we will tell our children in the years to come, many that they will possibly struggle to believe and understand. But my main takeaway from the previous year (outside of the 10’s of takeaways I had) is to actively pursue what will give me a good quality of life.
‘Quality of life is the the standard of health, comfort, and happiness experienced by an individual outlining negative and positive features of life. It consists of the expectations of an individual or society for a good life guided by values, goals and socio-cultural context’
What are you in pursuit of this year?
Praise’Gbemisola
