Chapter I

It was a beautiful Saturday night out with friends. I, as always, enjoyed myself and was happy about the weekend, new people I meet and much more. But one thing ended my happiness abruptly. My two, good friends who visited me and whom I went out with were robbed. It was not a dramatic, life-threatening robbery in a dark alley of London but in the Cloakroom of the place we were at. Quite tragic, phones, wallet and keys were gone. And for me personally, my nice, little, black notebook was also in there and therefore gone. My precious notes which are worthless for anyone else since they only contain private thoughts, ideas and observations of mine which I sometimes share with people either on my blog or in real life. I was upset. Of course my friends also had every reason to be upset but I was too. It is not the financial loss that it would cause to buy a replacement, it is rather the content that was uniquely formulated when I experienced moments in my life in which I felt that I had to write them down because it would be worth remembering them later in my life. I loved the idea of using a notebook since I arrived in London. Pages I could fill with everything I like preserved for my future self. I imagined myself twenty years later reading my notes and remembering all the things I experienced from weird people I met to beautiful moments on a bench watching the sun set and the leaves fall from the trees marking the end of summer. All that was gone with my book. The chances to find it or that someone would care were nearly zero. The person who stole my friend’s bag probably did not aim to violate my privacy and yet it is an uncanny feeling that somebody else might be reading all the things I wrote. It was mainly for the memories that were gone which made me feel down. It must be like a photographer whose film was not put in correctly while he took pictures. Or, more probably, these days the memory card would be faulty by the moment you try to look at hundreds of pictures you took on your computer. You might remember it but it is still gone and gone forever. Only memories in everybody’s head are left.

Chapter II

Monday morning, London Central, thousands of people marching to work just like me. Still the bitter taste of loss but slightly better since I bought a new nice, little, black notebook. I was at work and received an email from somebody saying that he found my notebook on a window sledge in Covent Garden. A sudden and overwhelming feeling of elation filled my entire body. It was Karma, the universe helped me. Good people are so rare. I try to be one of those. I give things I find back even if there is an effort involved when doing so. It is mainly because I hope that in case I lose something, somebody will make an effort to give it back to me. And so it happened when I received that mail. Karma is real. I believe in that certain balance in the universe which evens out every deed regardless if good or bad. I just cannot believe how lucky I am. I have my notebook and notes which I should look after much better from now on.

Epilogue

One way or another, I will keep on writing in my blog and in my notebook. My notebook, however, has had its first travel through the streets of London and found its way back to me.

The end

It’s sad sometimes how young people in the western world, especially in the richer countries, let themselves go and live their live with a “fuck it all” or “I don’t care” attitude. I always attempt to encourage young people to learn and educate themselves. Everybody should use his abilities for the best and try to make the world a better place. Of course I am not suggesting becoming an ambassador or anything like a saint. What I am trying to get to is that by making the best out of yourself, you will make the world a better place automatically. You don’t need to do voluntary work if you don’t want to and you don’t need to join Green Peace. The only thing that matters to me is that you should live up to your abilities and the huge amount of options you are given today. People let’s say in Switzerland (yes, I live in Switzerland) can enjoy some of the best education in the entire world for a more reasonable price than anywhere else in the world. But what do people do in Switzerland, young bright minds start rising up against schools and just care for less important things than their future. Education is future. Without education there will not be any progress. Not all young people think that way of course. Nonetheless, the fact that many do is freaking me out. In other countries such as the former Yugoslavian countries the entire society seems somewhat numb. There is no future because there is no real educational system and subsequently many people lack a perspective. Young people can’t find work and waste their lives. Even if you were intelligent, you couldn’t find an employer. You would only go away to another country and start a new life. It’s tragic that it doesn’t matter a damn thing if you have master’s degree or nothing but you secondary school to show in your CV because there is no job for either of you that matches your qualification.

Education is the key and gladly in most western countries it is a matter of highest importance. You may be complaining about your school or university but that is just peanuts compared to the problems other societies are facing. While you complain that a letter has arrived with your name misspelled, people in other countries try to acquire new books and a classroom which is equipped at least with some usable furniture. Furthermore, no company is looking for people with skills. The reason is, that such companies neither can afford nor have the money to implement ideas of innovative people. What would be the point in employing such a person? The system is a vicious cycle. Young people do not get sufficient education and have no motivation since there is no perspective for them even though they may hold a master’s degree in a scientific discipline. Trust me this is not a situation you want to be in. I assume you live somewhere in Western Europe or the U.S., where education belongs to the foundation of a functional society.

If you are intelligent and/or willing to learn take the opportunity and get yourself to the next level. Achieve something. Be a maker. And always think of people who would wish to have the chance you have. Do not just take it all for granted since it’s absolutely not.

I think like like-minded people, that’s why I like them.

As funny as this sentence sounds which came up in my mind a few weeks back, it bears an important meaning to our everyday lives. I kept thinking about it and the more I thought about it the more I realised that it is very true.

We are surrounded by many people, at work, school, home and elsewhere. We also have friends. What kind of friends do we have? What are they like? Are they like you? Well, in my case I made a little discovery. When you think about your closest friends you either see that they are very like-minded or that they’re not. For me, my best friends are very different on all kinds of things. Nonetheless, we have certain stuff in common which connects us. You probably think now, what’s the point of the sentence at the beginning then or what’s the point at all? I am just getting closer to it. Think about a moment in your life when you were totally new in an environment. For example you entered a new study programme or started a new job. Loads of unknown people are in a room as you enter. As a new part of this community you will have to find your place. What is the first thing you do? I would say you check all people out and motion towards those who appear to be like you. Or probably people that are the way you would like to be.

At first you only expected to be accepted in the group as a part of them. Once you joined a group of people that have seemingly the same interests and opinions as you do successfully, you will start to make new friends. As time passes by you will get to know each other better and better. This will prove if  you were right or wrong at first glance. You will automatically stay with those people who share interests in order to establish a conversation. Someone may be just like you and shares your views or the person may be totally different. Normally, you would stick to those that are like you. Because you can talk to those people and get to know them. Even though it might be only small talk. Usually, you won’t stay with people that are totally different. Because no conversation, jokes or anything of that sort would develop from ordinary small talk. Later you will see that even someone who has tons of things in common with you will have different views on some things at some point. That’s completely normal. As you get to know people better you will see their flaws, background and realise you are not the same. That’s when friends start to broaden your mind and you start to discuss, argue and have fun. Those are moments when a friendship start to grow between people. We can’t have the exact same views on everything. We are different and those differences will surface sooner or later. Everything else would be very creepy and I would try to find out if he or she is a spy, stalker, illuminati or from outer space.

No matter how you meet someone, most of us will probably not even remember how they met some of their best friends, it is important that at first we were very alike. Then it turned out that those people we later call friends, have other opinions too. But still, they are our friends. Every friendship starts with a shared interest, style, opinion at a place where you meet for a reason. And yes, that’s basically everywhere. So, friends can be made everywhere and true friends will overcome even the biggest disputes about interests, styles and opinions.