Life and living it
A couple of weeks ago I attended a concert which came about as a result of a brain tumour.
At the age of 24 and after months of migraines, Victoria Neil began having problems with her vision. A trip to the doctor and an MRI later, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour the size of an orange. An operation successfully reduced the size of the tumour, but it was found to be a particularly aggressive type, with a strong likelihood of her not living any longer than 18 months.
Knowing time was short, Victoria decided there was not a minute to be wasted, left her job and set about achieving her bucket list. One of those wishes was to sing in a concert – which was achieved in the concert I attended last month. The concert itself served a second purpose too – not only in raising funds for oncology research, but allowing Victoria to achieve some of the other things on her list – including taking art classes, attending a friend’s wedding in the UK, seeing ancient ruins in Greece and visiting friends around the world.
This all got me thinking. Victoria is staying positive, enjoying time with family and friends, and achieving the things she wants to achieve. Isn’t that what we should all be doing all the time? It seems to me that the tendency to ‘work hard now, enjoy life later’ is a dangerous one. ‘Later’ can be too late. Now is all we really have, and we should be making the most of it. And so I ask, are you enjoying your life? Are you spending quality times with loved ones? What is it you want to achieve in life? And how are you going to make it happen? Whether your goal is learning to cook a mean curry, or climbing to the top of Mt Everest, it’s really worth going out there and making it happen.
