[#77 Lesson] Sometimes Life Isn’t Like the Movies

This life lesson relates to my previous blog #77 Get a Picture with a Buckingham Palace Guard.

I am embarrassed to admit that I honestly thought that I was going to be able to make faces at a Buckingham Palace guard. I am abundantly aware that Hollywood dramatises almost everything, but I thought this one was different. I had seen it in so many movies that I thought it was actually possible to achieve.

While you can get close to the guards, you cannot get close enough to make faces at them. And if you do make faces at them, chances are it will end up with you in the hospital.

I was glad that I had Jackie to tell me that this was unrealistic. At least that prepared me a bit more, on the day, to try to salvage something out of it. While the photo I took was not what I originally had in my mind, the pursuit of this item taught me a valuable lesson. And that is the true essence of the bucket list. Push yourself to live and push yourself to learn.

Although this lesson was something that I knew all along, this experience brought it to the forefront of my memory. After this day, I went back to my list to see if there were any others that were going to trip me up, for the same reason. There are certainly some very ambitious items remaining, but none of them quite fall into the same Hollywood dramatisation category as this one.

I can deal with ambitious. Ambitious just means tough, but not impossible. One of the most ambitious items on my list is to set a Guinness World Record. I honestly have no clue how I am going to accomplish this one. No clue at all. I believe that, when the timing is right, an opportunity will present itself to me. This will set me on the path to accomplishing a world record. This one will be accomplished through equal parts of hard work and serendipity.

Another ambitious item is to watch a volcanic eruption. I have always been fascinated by volcanoes and think it would be magical to watch one blow its top, in person. This could be very dangerous, so I need to be smart about accomplishing this one. I am also very dependent on luck. It’s about being in the right place at the right time. Ironically enough, I live only 20 km away from an active volcano.

This item taught me that sometimes (most times) life isn’t like the movies. Having these misconceptions in our minds can be a bad thing. It is always good to do your homework before you dive into something. I should have done my homework with this item and I would have realised that it was virtually impossible. At least now I have checked my list and made sure that everything else is possible, no matter how tough they will be to accomplish.

Has Hollywood dramatisation steered you wrong before? Let me know in the comments below.

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