Man’s new best friend

As my friends and I waited for our lunch to arrive, I sat silently (too hungry to converse about the latest fashion trends) observing our surroundings. I notice a few large canvas paintings, that resemble screen printing, that hung peacefully on the calming clean walls. As my eyes wander down from the artwork and onto the couple seated across the aisle from our table, I saw that they were both preoccupied with capturing the perfectly angled close-up shot of their meals.

Would you like to add Lo-Fi or Nashville for an extra fifty cents?

That may as well be added onto the menus on this planet. My eyes continued to wander around to the other tables and, by no surprise, they were all guilty of forcing their food to become flawless photogenic creatures. Sometimes, food just wants to be food – is that okay with you?!

I took my first bite as my friends still had not yet found the winning shot to showcase. One stood up and performed a squat for an aerial shot. Another transformed into the Hunchback of Notre Dame to get an extreme close-up. The other made at least three chins to achieve a decent high shot. By now, I was probably up to my eighth bite.

This is man’s new best friend. Not your dog, but the high definition digital photograph of your dog taken from your smartphone – the smartest of all smartphones.

How have we become so disconnected to reality? I know, at least for myself, that I am attached to my mobile. It’s something I always grip onto and it almost acts like a security blanket. It worries me that slight paranoia kicks in when my phone isn’t with me. Even when I’m typing this now, I have my phone just centimetres away from my hand.

I think technology is wonderful. All these vast rapid advancements are fascinating to experience. However, it is also one thing that worries me in this technologically driven world. Will we keep up with technology? Will it overtake us eventually? Will we ever experience what’s right in front of us the same again? Or will we be too distracted on concentrating on the experience our small screens give us instead? Tangible experiences, connections, communication, and interactions are now uncommon. Let’s go back to basics. Watching the sun rise and set is a more fulfilling experience than being transfixed on taking twenty photos of the sun that you’ll most probably forget about the next day.

Experience with your senses. At the end of the day, it will give you much more than what a thin rectangular digital device can give.

A Banana-spheric thinking space

Up until about a month ago, I had been quite ‘on the edge’ with post-uni life. Now a fresh undergraduate – what’s next? I didn’t have a graduate position in place (or any sort of desired employment including internships), and I also didn’t have sufficient funds to explore this big bad world. All I really had was the tedious retail industry, a few extracurricular activities here and there, and dreaming. Plus a lot of lazing around. All a bit pathetic, I know.

Skip to a month ago – it finally truly hit me that I was somewhat pessimistic in approaching life. I noticed that I predominantly focused on the negative aspects: I don’t have an ‘adult’ job; I’m shit at saving; I’m not really good at anything in particular; I am just generally shit at life.

Do you feel the positivity that surrounds me?

Basically, I sprinkled glitter on my negativity in this past month. I am looking into another peephole and there are two people who inspired me greatly to do so (not to say that others around me didn’t inspire me also):
Person 1: He made me further understand that we all have the capabilities we need to achieve our goals. It’s just the matter of having confidence in yourself to express it. And serendipity. He is big on serendipity.
Person 2: His spiritual nature made me think about my passions and stepping over my insecurities. What is the point of being insecure?

What is the point of this rant, you say? This is how A Banana Thinks was conceived and brought into this world.

I noticed that I predominantly focused began focusing on the negative positive aspects: I don’t have an ‘adult’ job; I’m shit at saving; I’m not really good at anything in particular; I am just generally shit at life. By opening my mind and stepping out of my comfort zone, I am now having a taste in video production; money is money – I’ll be patient and get there eventually (maybe toning down food expenses will help); I explored myself and found that I have potential in copywriting (welcome to the world, A Banana Thinks – a platform where I can delve into this further); YOLO.

Nike has the right attitude. Just do it.

What is your passion?

Before I get into the uneventful details of my life that explains the birth of A Banana Thinks, I would like to get one thought out of my head first: Passion.

pas·sion |ˈpa sh ən|
• an intense desire or enthusiasm for something
• a thing arousing enthusiasm

Although I’d love to delve into the “intense sexual love” definition of passion, my focal point is the above. So, before we get any deeper, let me first ask you: What is your passion? What are you passionate about?

It can be anything.

If you had no problem giving an answer, congratulations. You are way ahead in life already. If you, like me, weren’t confident and/or unsure about your passions, congratulations also. At least you are able to admit to it. For the rest of you who do not fit into any of those categories, I don’t know what you are and can’t help you there. Sorry.

I recently got asked this question whilst contemplating post-uni life and this struck me. It struck me hard. I thought I knew the answer but I really didn’t. I ‘liked’ a lot of things, but it took me a long time to realise what really interested me. Half an hour later, I had one thing down:

I am passionate about understanding people. I like observing, and discovering what makes people the way they are.

This one epiphany, out of the many more to come, has already cleared up a lot for me. Not only can I now confidently answer this question, but I am also one step closer in revealing what I am really about to myself and others. This is beneficial for all parties. I think pinpointing your passions are a way of opening yourself up to greater insights and opportunities in life – whatever they may be. I know all this sounds like a whole lot of corny horse crap, but I think it’s worthwhile to sit and think about it.

Essentially, what I’m trying to say is that one should explore and open up as much as possible in life. Life is what you make it to be. You’re passionate about making art using toothpicks? So do it. Passionate about vegetable gardens? Start planting! Why do we not do the things we’re most enthusiastic about more often? We don’t need an excuse or reason to do those things. Think of the potential we could be. Let’s just do it.

So, humanity interests me. What are you passionate about?