I hope you remind yourself that there is no one in this life who can tell you, ever, how truly unique and beautiful, and amazingly clever you actually are. You might think you are vulnerable, but that is one of your many great strengths. Vulnerability is a strength, not a sign of weakness; in the same way compassion for the plight of others is a value that makes you rare and needed in these modern selfish times. I prefer compassion and vulnerability.You will never be back here along life’s road, so don’t allow yourself to be afraid of the anxiety that another individual can try to make you feel. There’s no room for them in your life, whatsoever. There can never be an exception to that rule. Call it insecurity on their part. This life is way too short. We only come to realise this fact when we reach a point in our lives where we wish we had realised it sooner. Realise it now. Not later. There’s too much time later to imagine that you can spend it doing nothing. That should never be a consideration. Fill your life with laughter, public displays of affection, and, most of all, compassion. There will be people who try to convince you that ‘you are not what you used to be’, or ‘you are changing’, or ‘don’t be so silly’ or ‘you can do so much better’ or – Oh God forbid – ‘you are such a disappointment’; and they are ‘worried about you’ because, as they see it, you don’t conform to their expectations. These are people you don’t need on your life’s journey, much as they try to convince you that you do. They deserve to be told, ‘Wait there, and I’ll be right back.’ Put them on hold. Don’t come back to them. They are not worth it. Keep in step with the person you know who understands you for who you are, not what others believe you should be. Smile.Trust me, you don’t know how uninformed other people can be until they start to tell you they know you better than you do. I have never met a man or woman in the final stages of dying who has said, ‘I really wish I’d spent more time believing people who told me they knew more about me than I did.’ No one will ever know more about you than you know about yourself.There’s nothing quite like being yourself when you know that there are others who secretly wish they had the balls to be brave enough to be who are and do what you do. Be different, and be brave. You only get one chance. Love who you are: now, not later! Stand under the stars at night and look up; study the constellations. They’ll be up there long after we’re all gone. Don’t listen to other people’s intellectual advice; better listen to your own body, to your gut instinct. That unique gut instinct dies with you. Each one of us will wish one day that we had trusted it more than we trusted so many other people. Life goes by so fast. One minute you’re six, next minute you’re sixty! Look at how amazing the sky’s quilt of majestic reality can be in your eyes on a clear night. If there are people in your life who think you should be more like they are, then tell them you’ll think about it. Don’t ever let yourself be fooled by someone who claims that education is more important than imagination.And then smile to yourself, and go back to the beauty of the times when a school teacher might have called you a daydreamer. Isn’t that the most wonderful compliment you can ever be paid? I think so, because that’s what I was called.I am still a daydreamer, proudly, all of my life. My school teachers are long gone. Some of them were mighty mentors who shaped my dreams and reminded me of the importance of imagination, while others I barely remember, who were bitter and disillusioned. They daydreamed about going home, I’ve no doubt. They chose the wrong careers. Too late. The real mentors always told me to keep looking at the stars, at all the possibilities of what might still lie ahead, whether you’re six or sixty. None of us knows what lies ahead, so never give up. Every night when I look up at the stars, I’m reminded how bright and how brilliant they are – whenever I think about all that is still possible in my life. And that’s all that I can share with you. It’s time to thank today for what it has taught me, and to rest. Tomorrow doesn’t matter for now. Tomorrow starts when I wake up.To all those teachers, who see beyond the importance of books and exams, and points, keep telling students about the importance of daydreaming, which is just another word for imagination; because it’s what comes from those dreams that makes our lives truly worthwhile in time to come, whenever that might be. I’m no longer in much of a hurry to know what the future holds for me, as I once used to be. It’s somewhere out there. No doubt it will be here in its own good time.
