Consciousness upgrade

That one thing. The one thought that inspires a life time, a new tangent that makes a person see the world in a different way, a moment that lasts a lifetime.

For me, it was sitting in a movie theatre watching “The Beach”. The characters, dismayed with a 'normal life', took to travelling in South-east Asia, seeking ever more exotic and remote destinations. In the end, they sought what I also sought – a deeper understanding of myself, a choice of action rather than a well run routine that had been prescribed and administered by a faceless yet ever present force. 

 I walked into the theatre with tunnel vision, focused on the next party, the next pay rise, the next weekend. I walked out with a wider horizon, hungry to see what the world had to offer and conscious that the limitations in my life were somehow self imposed. 

 People were out there, hungry for something different, something untouched, something pure and principled. The taste of freedom, only a feeling, had whetted my appetite.

The movie ended with tragedy, as the utopian paradise crumbled. However, the dream alive in the hearts and minds of those fearless travellers stirred my own spirit, and the dreams of the days and weeks to follow meant that I could not shake that dream. My consciousness had undergone an upgrade.

So about 5 years later, I find myself on a plane to South-East Asia. Excitement overwhelming me, I peeked out the window as my travelling companion slept in the seat next to me. The sun, about an hour before its rise, glowed below the horizon and showed the shape of the earth, and the magnificent ocean stretched as far as I could see. 

 The grandeur sunk in, but my fascination would not abate. I saw that the limitations I had placed up on myself could only be released by me, and that the world was indeed limitless. 

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