Where Did She Go Now?

It began in grade nine with my best friend as a silly project… “The Ten Commandments of High School”. It was cliche, and based on the superficial vanity of high school and the early crushes of boys. To say the least, the original commandment were not much, but there is one of those ten commandments that has stuck with me through out the past 9 years, making this silly project into an ongoing life project.

A new commandment blossoms every once in a while. First as an inside joke, molded into a frequent saying or motto, which I took further as a theory. You will learn quite quickly that the use of the phrase ‘commandments’ has no religious connotation or fixture to the project, merely a starting point, a historical context of rules set in stone (if you catch my drift). You will also notice that My Life’s Ten Commandments is only at five… but I think that is the point. It is growing… and every so often, a new inside joke is born, bred, molded and solidified into one of My Life’s Ten Commandments.

I would also like you to know that these commandments were a collaboration of not only my own life experiences, but mostly those precious moments shared with friends who adopted the motto’s themselves as they grew into a theme of certain experiences, and a common phrase of association to a particular time.

This is the work and progress of My Life’s Ten Commandments:

1) Thou Shall Never Regret but Can Forget

This lies from the original ten commandments of grade ten, and the inspiration for the further success of my silly project. It’s quite simple actually: if there is an experience in your life that you feel anxious about, or even humiliated just forget about it. The key is to never regret it. Regret swallows us whole and builds an invisible tumor within us that only grows with each regret we have. If you do something that you are ashamed of, do not regret it, just pretend it never happened… you are allowed to forget. By getting rid of all the toxic worries, events and humiliations, you feel much lighter as a person and as a result happier. So as shallow fourteen year olds, my best friend and I had a pretty good point.

2) Thou Shall Never Let Thy Age Become Larger than the Number of Countries they have Visited

The mysteries of this enlightening commandment are dedicated to the inspirational Don Gogniat. When I was on Semester at Sea, our Global Studies professor, Gogniat, had his own set of rules. They were the travelers commandments; and of his ten commandment’s this one resonated with my best. Not only does it landmark Semester at Sea, which was one of the most incredible times of my life, but actually put’s life into perspective when your passion and your time on this planet are in competition. The essence of this commandment, is not to wait until you are older, or later, or retired to do the thing’s you love. You really must seize the day because time does not wait. Regardless of travel being your passion or not, this commandment is applicable to any passion that is being put on hold. Your passion and your lifespan are in competition… who will win?

3) Thou Shall Live Every Moment in Life as if it were the Last Fifteen Minutes

Inspired by my first travel experience with my best friend, Christine Novak (who also co-hosted the first set of commandments),  to her home country of Czech Republic. One night in Prague, we went on a Pub Crawl hitting up five different bars per night. We noticed a trend happening, that when we only had fifteen minutes left in that particular bar before we had to leave, we danced the hardest, sweat the most, laughed as much as we could, and met everyone around us. They were the best fifteen minutes, and they were always the best fifteen minutes because they were the last fifteen minutes. Life didn’t matter. If you were sweating, who cares, you were about to go outside and cool off anyway, if you were acting like a fool, it didn’t matter because we were never going to see these people again. Essentially, you should always live your life like the last fifteen minutes, worry free, sporadic and enthused, wishing that those fifteen minutes would never end. If you live every minute like that last fifteen minutes, you will truly live life to the fullest.

4) Thou Shall not Permit any Repeat Offenders

A little less profound than the others but also self-explanatory. Self-help books always tell you to rid your life of the toxins. If something is bad for you, do not talk to it, build a relationship with it, eat it, smoke it, or go near it. Red fire signals go up, and you know it’s wrong, yet the problem is we keep doing it. The key to this commandment is not to repeat the offence. We are only human, and it’s acceptable that we are naturally curious human beings, but once the curiosity is gone, what is the satisfaction? There is none. You are allowed to try, but do not ever do it again. You will live happier without the impeding curiosity, nor the habitual torment that comes along with repeat offenders.

5) Thou Shall Just Commit To It

You read it right. Commit to it. Similar to the motivational phrase of “give it your best shot”, this inside joke grew while I was in South East Asia in the summer of 2011. The three month journey was a constant reel or trials, things to try, experiences to enjoy, opportunities to push your self and face your fears. As similar to Commandment 4, we are naturally curious beings, thus meaning we want to try even the dangerous things, the scary things, the socially unacceptable things… So when you gain the courage to do it, you have to commit to it. Do not half ass anything you decide to do, give it your full commitment and the rewards are much higher. When ever you are scared, just commit, and once you do, there is no turning back. It is a one way street forward, and often that forward leads to success.

* These commandment’s have been a part of my life since I was fourteen. They are real, true, and based on experience. I intend to reach the 10 rule mark… but I can assure you it will be done slowly. For now I challenge you to familiarize your self with these commandments, see if they fit you, what they mean to you, how you can adapt them… Comment below and let me know your thoughts.

- All photographs are from www.weheartit.com