Saturday 25 February 2012

Aden: Random Memories 18: Envoi

Childhood is a special part of one’s life. For so many lucky people, it consists of growing up with the same people in the same area.
For a tiny number of us, it meant uprooting ourselves on a regular basis, friendships were never made to last in perpetuity, and possibly most of our friends of that time are forgotten.
Were we unlucky? We saw the true technicolour world that was nothing more than fuzzy black and white images on tiny television screens watched behind drawn curtains. We smelt the stench and perfumes. We lived, not necessarily comfortably nor in near proximity, with the local population. We saw another world, and yet remained in an antiseptic bubble that made us little more than an outpost of the Home Counties.
And yet, and yet, and yet, we lived a life that nobody else could live. We could climb extinct volcanoes and swim with the angel fish in the ocean. Would I change my life for that of somebody who hardly ever had the opportunity to travel anywhere when it was expensive and reserved mainly for the rich?
You know the answer.
© 2012 Gwailo54

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