My Son took his GCSE exams this Summer and is now awaiting the results which should arrive in a few weeks time. I remember the Summer of my O-Levels (the equivalent back-then) and like him from the end of June onward luxuriating in a long break from school, books and revision. I seem to remember it being warm, sunny and gloriously lazy but looking back at the records his July has trumped mine by a long way, the highest temperature back then being only 25 degrees and already this July we've had several days over 30! Global warming aside, perhaps the weather always seems better when you're young and haven't got much to do except hang-out with your mates, listen to music and enjoy the Summer; it's a rare personality indeed that actually enjoys exams.
Throughout our lives I'm sure we all experience many moments when we feel that pressure of measurement and comparison, work-life is like that almost every day, but as I get older I do sense that I'm taking it less seriously and not attaching so much weight to it as I have done in the past. Life has a habit of continually illustrating it's fragility, whilst in New York visiting the 9/11 memorial last week I thought about this quite a lot, it was a stark reminder that it only takes some random bad-luck and an instant for our lives to be changed forever. Living for the moment is a very hard thing to do in our commercially driven and consumerist culture, but I'm starting to think that I should try harder.
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