...this was written a few years back - when I started on a new direction...
When you realise that your old life doesn’t suit you any more and you feel out of place in it there is only one thing but to change it! The realisation that this is what you are going to have to do is a lot easier than making the change – I mean there are so many things to consider….what will this new life entail for starters? How will it steer a path away from the existing yet still keep some of the things that make you/me up? Do I need to look at the past to perhaps see a future that fits and I want to be a part of? Don’t read me wrong here – I certainly aren’t saying that my life is or was crap or anything – I mean who’s is perfect? Mine has had many twists and turns, ups and downs that would make a mountain bike trail look flat and straight!
Like anyone there are so many things I would love to do again, times I wish never happened and various memories of both these times. Whether much would change if I did any again – who can say? I am not sure whose dream it was that I just lived. Can’t say it was ever something I thought, let alone dreamed nor planned to do. Crazy the paths life’s journey takes us on when you surrender and get caught up in the voyages.
Okay so as you may recall – I brought me a Seadoo Jet-ski in the spring of 1999. It was the start of many a crazy thing I did that summer / year, but who would have thought it would lead to opening my own Seadoo store. It certainly was the beginning of one hell of a voyage for the past decade.
Still cracks me up that one of the motorcycle guys I knew at the time “gave m 6 months till I was bored of my jetski” well little did he or I know that 6 years on I would still be leading the way in the industry, won top sales dealer each year since opening and becoming a bit of a fixture among the jetski industry of New Zealand. It was my life – all I knew – all that I got up for in the morning. Even at its all time lows I got up, dusted myself off, took a deep breath, and took my place at the shop
From selling to racing – I was excelling, leading and loving it! Did I expect it to give me the adventures I had? Not likely!
2* snapped ACL’s, 2 lots of 4 stitches, multiple fibreglass shards pulled from my skin, scuffs, cuts and bruises (not to mention the tears and fears!)
And let’s not forget the many individual characters that I have met and befriended over this time in my life. Oh My…there is probably a book right there! Although if I have to say it – they are the reason I kept going and they helped give me the spring in my step at work and especially the trade shows of the industry. Some came and went, leaving no impression, maybe stealing a few braincells – but they replenish don’t they? And then there are the characters that made it so much fun. Even the long hard hauls or work for some were great times with some of them.
So I did my 10 years (well just shy of) I was true and loyal to the brand – some would say to a fault, but that was my choice to be that way. Everything you do is by choice – good or bad. We choose to get up in the morning. Choose what to wear, if we are going to have breakfast, and how we will deal with those we come into contact with during our day to day life exchanges. All in all reality we choose if we will remember or forget the day that just was!
Having the memory of an elephant isn’t always they most wanted gift from our creator. Maybe alzeimers will even it all out when I am older? Who knows what the future, what I may buy next and possibly run away with. Suddenly the circus is looking easy and familiar…maybe the lions and tigers will be easily appeased now and into the future. I know the road will always twist and turn in the most amazing and unplanned ways…
*add another ACL reco since this was written