Fourteen years

Fourteen years have now past yet it never gets any easier. The birthday wishes to one of by best friends serves as a reminder of a day that changed my life dramatically in such a surreal and shocking way.

Fourteen years ago today my older cousin, Marcus, was ripped from our lives in a senseless act of gang violence. I don’t want to go into all of the specifics details as it was and still is quite painful to think about but what I will say is that it was brutal and horrific and something that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. As much as I feel affected by all of this it doesn’t even compare to how my other cousins (his younger brothers and sister) or my auntie must be feeling today. Loosing a cousin is awful but I don’t think that I could ever understand the pain of loosing a brother. My love goes out to them today and to all my friends and family who have lost someone.

When I look at my life now I always try to remain positive and appreciative of all of the experiences and opportunities that I have had in my life. I am now 11 years older than Marcus was when he was killed and in that time I have been able to experience life and see some beautiful things. I have been able to see my family grow and watch my baby cousins turn into young adults. I have watched the world change around me and see first hand how technology and innovation has changed the world. I have had the opportunity to travel and make new friends around the world and for that I will be forever grateful.

Life can be vicious and cruel at times, however if we stay focused and positive then we can somehow manage to pull something good out of the situation.

Tonight I intend to spend the night looking at the stars and taking some time to be thankful for who I am and what I have been able to accomplish so far in my life.Tomorrow may just be another day for some people but for me it is the continuation of an amazing adventure that I don’t intend to let go of any time soon!

P.S. I jotted this all down on a notepad sat in a cafe with the intention of going to a bar in order to write it up and get some wifi to upload it. Instead of heading straight there I decided to head to the beach to practice trying to balance on the rocks with my hands. I know that sounds random but it is something I have always wanted to do so now each day I am going to try it and see if I get any better at it. In the spirit of living life I then decided to climb up a willow tree growing on the beach because “why not?“. It turns out I get WiFi from the top of the tree so right now I am sat at the top of a tree on my laptop looking like a weirdo. The best thing about this place is that no one really seems to care as if this is just an average thing they see from people who just want to live life. I shall continue to look for weird and wonderful places to work from now on 🙂