Back when I played guitar, one of my go-to songs was from a film called “Begin Again”, starring Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley. The song itself was called “Lost Stars” sung by Adam Levine. Despite not being blessed with his vocal range, I loved this song for its lyrics – in particular one that went “God, tell us the reason; youth is wasted on the young”. Although it is cliché, I’m going through one of those phases where I agree with the general sentiment. What prompted this was someone I know writing their personal statement. Reflecting back to when I wrote my personal statement makes my wish [sic] I could have done it again. Now it seems rather trivial to write something reasonably engaging about a subject that you want to study further. Furthermore, unlike anything I write here, it’s guaranteed to have at least one reader!
I’ve also recently come to understand how to actually stay relaxed when swinging a badminton racket – something I couldn’t do in four years at Durham nor an additional four-and-a-bit years at the University of Tokyo Badminton Club.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that our youth has been wasted – I’ve spent the past few months, if not years doing just that. But I’ve just realised that coming to feel this way should be a cause for celebration, not sadness. We’d never change or grow without feeling this way. So whist [sic] it sometimes feels incredibly painful, I’m going to try and turn that into something I can be proud of. I’m sure that in 10 years time, as I’m turning 38, there will be things I wish I knew earlier, or did differently. At least I hope there will be. And I hope I will have gotten better at converting the associated pain into pride.