In my younger (much younger!) days, as a student at Warwick University, I started to play darts. Not, you understand, because I loved the game, but because it gave me an opportunity to socialise… and drink lots… and lots of beer!
But, as time went on, I started to get pretty good at it, and that lead to me practicing more and more. Usually at the expense of studying. But, hey… I was here to have fun and find myself, not work into the small hours. Though I did end up doing that on a number of occasions to get assignments finished and handed in on time… often after I’d played darts and had a pint or two!
In my second year, I’d reached a pretty good standard and ended up becoming the University Singles Darts Champion… and of course had a few beers to celebrate.
Then, in my final year at Warwick, I retained my title, becoming champion for the second year running.
Now, the winning and the drinking aren’t the reason for this story, it’s what followed that taught me a valuable lesson about whether anywhere ever stays the same.
You see…
I was invited to return and play in the following year’s tournament… to give me a chance of winning the trophy for the third year in succession and thus keeping the trophy for life.
A chance too good to turn down, of course…
But there was one major problem…
After leaving University, I hadn’t really played darts very much…
And, in truth, I hadn’t drunk anywhere near as much beer either – which, of course is definitely a good thing!
I was well and truly out of practice… at both darts and drinking!
Anyway, I thought, even if I don’t win, it would be great to go back to Warwick and relive my time there for a few days. They were happy days and times full of fun, so what did I have to lose?
The problem was, things were different…
So different, I thought I’d turned up at the wrong place!
I thought that nothing would have changed.
Trouble was…
Many of the people I was at University with had left…
The buildings, though they looked the same, were somehow different…
The atmosphere was different.
And, although there were a few people still there that I knew, most had moved on…
They’d done what I should have done.
In the end, I cut my stay short, and left after only one night.
Looking back, I realise that those three years had been a chapter in my life…
A chapter that helped to mold me into the person I am now…
But a chapter that should have been left well alone, after I’d moved on to the next chapter.
It was a place I’d never wanted to leave…
A place I loved…
A place that had dragged me out of my shell…
A place that will never leave my heart…
A place I thought would never change…
And maybe it wasn’t the place that had changed…
Maybe it was me that had changed.
Keith Jones
Living a Life of Purpose
21 Days of Transformation: A Journey to Dig Deep into Your Inner Thoughts
If that sounds like a journey you’d like to take with me…
If you feel the need to dig deep and find out things about yourself you never knew existed…
If you need clarity and purpose to be at the forefront of your life…
Let’s take this journey together.