A shot taken in Sai Kung, Hong Kong, during one of my hikes
I watched a Taiwanese idol drama recently (偶像剧) recently (fyi, best not to watched these too often as it really skews your idea of reality). 败犬女王 (My Queen) was about a romance between a younger man and older woman. More on that and the derogatory term (败犬) in another post!
Anyway, one of the things that stuck in my mind in one of the episodes was an analogy drawn about how life is like a series of waves. The male protagonist (played by the very cute Ethan Ruan) was writing a postcard from Hawaii, where he had gone surfing, to his best friend in Taiwan.
In his short message, he writes that at any one point, we must always have dreams and that we must work hard to pursue them. Working towards that dream(s) is an uphill struggle, just like riding up towards the crest of a wave. It’s hard work, but we must keep at it – because when we achieve that dream, it’s like reaching the crest of the wave where we are rewarded with a spectacular view and an amazing sense of rush when we surf that wave.
The analogy makes sense to me as I chase waves to surf when I paddle too. Surfing waves is the ultimate thrill of outrigger canoeing. I understand that thrill when riding a wave – it’s such a liberating feeling. When that happens, it’s just you and the water. For those brief moments, it’s pure exhilaration.
The male protagonist goes on to say that once we have surfed that wave, the next one will follow and we continue finding that next crest just as we find our next dream to chase once we’ve achieved one. I love that analogy and think it’s so true that it’s important to have dreams. I’ve always been somewhat of a dreamer, following my heart instead of my head in most situations. In some cases, it hasn’t served me well, but in most cases I think it has. So I’m happy being a heart-gal more than a head-gal. My good friends who are more realists than idealists, keep me in check most of the time. For that, I’m grateful.
I made a life’s to-do list back in 2007. I reviewed it a few days ago and found that I’ve since managed only about 10 out of the 70 items listed there. That’s pathetic. But I also realise that I want a new list now. Most of them involve travelling by the way. Haha. I can never get enough of travelling!
I’ll be 31 in 11 days and about 40% of an average life span is already gone. I need to work a lot harder at chasing those waves and dreams! But sometimes it’s like the older I get, the more I feel those dreams slipping away from me with time and finances not being on my side. Nevertheless, I will not throw out my dreams ‘cos I think it’s important to keep them in mind to remain motivated to live and discover.
To us dream seekers and wave riders!