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Making the most of moments – By @_ElliotL

 

By Elliot Lee

Making the most of moments

 

London is a strange place. So far I haven’t enjoyed it probably as much as maybe I could. Time will tell when work/placements start and enjoying London fully is actually doable. I really am sick of being a student. Though I absolutely love learning, and you never stop learning, it’s time to start earning money. Nevertheless, the course is going to be full of deciding moments up until we finish, and I think taking a step back and reflecting on these opportunities is going to be essential.

 

One thing that has come up over and over again is seizing the day, and making the most of opportunity. Just when you think your luck has ran out, something happens that changes your perspective on things. It’s a constant reshuffle. Emailing around for book crits with no reply. Then 2 weeks later a reply comes your way just when you have lost hope. Entering the industry is both frustrating and exciting, and it’s only really dawned on me how difficult it is with weeks remaining of the course.

 

Something happened two weeks ago that just put everything into perspective for me. The boys and me found out we had no luck at D&AD, and gutted would be an understatement. As I was heading home on the top deck of the bus to get home my route goes past Clapham Common park. It was an extremely sunny day and the park was covered with people, so distinguishing what people are doing is extremely difficult. As I continued to go down the road I just kept thinking over and over again what we could have done differently. Stupidly it kept crossing my mind that I had completely fucked it, and this was the end of my career (very dramatic). Then, all of a sudden, I look across the park and see this woman. I could only really see her from the side but I noticed she had crutches. As we went round the corner it became apparent that she only had one leg, and was using the crutches in order to try and balance on her own. This may be me making an assumption, but I’m guessing losing her leg was fairly recent, and she was becoming accustomed to a new life. With her sunglasses on, I watched her stand completely straight with no support from the crutches, absolutely still.

 

You always hear of successful people who had defining moments that changed their perspective to keep them motivated, and drive them forward. For me, I think that may have been my moment to use as a reality check. Right there and then, it became apparent that I’m sulking about not doing well in some awards, and here’s a woman trying to live a completely new life with this disability. We can’t always plan what happens in our lives. You can only live day by day, and set milestones that you want to achieve. Our minds can become a prison where we can lock ourselves away, and only we can become the gatekeepers.

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