May you have an interesting life

Some people consider the phrase 'may you have an interesting life' to be a curse.

My life hasn't been that interesting. If I wrote a book about it, I doubt anyone would read it. But I have done a few things that a lot of people haven't. I had a lot of fun once, and I was drunk a lot once and once, I did a few drugs and I did a few things that I'd regret if I did them now, but were very much worth it at the time. Like everyone else, I had my youth and I have stories. Not huge things - I have no wild foreign adventures to recount, I've never climbed a mountain or gone skydiving and I probably never will. But I have anecdotes, hundreds of funny little tales to tell, tales that shock people or make them laugh and I think, well, maybe my life hasn't been painfully dull.

But, and I think this is more in keeping with the phrase I mentioned, I've struggled. Everyone in my family has struggled. I watched a film - it wasn't a particularly deep film, just a comedy, but a character said, "it's the family curse - if we didn't have bad luck, we'd have no luck at all." This is the story of our life. Things go wrong for us. We expect things to go wrong for us. And sometimes it's hard, and sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it hurts a lot. But we're tougher for it. Every now and then, we dare to hope that it'll get better - it never does, but maybe one day it will. At least we've still got something to hope for and strive for - if everything went right, what would we do then? We'd be lost. We've cried through many nights, but we're always able to laugh in the morning, because if we couldn't, we'd have nothing at all. Life certainly is interesting when it feels like you're always trying for something, always fighting for something, always hoping and wishing for something, and always worrying over something. If I'm not worrying about something, I'm worrying that I've forgotten something that I should be worrying about!

It's not easy, but it's not easy for anyone, and tricks like this are what gets us through. We spin it. We spin everything, we try and turn it into a positive, like I did up there - it makes us tougher, it's never boring, etc. The tough times make us who we are, and I like who I am.

And while I do hope that one day things will change, if things changing means my life will be boring, then they can stay the way they are. I'm not somebody who'll do anything for a quiet life. I'm easily bored and I'm not easily satisfied. I crave adventure and if I don't have the means to have the adventures I want right now, then I'll take what I have and turn it into an adventure. You take what you can get.

It's not a curse. It's a blessing.

May you all have interesting lives.