In Touch with Reality

I wanted to write this blog post after finishing today the book 'Paper Towns' by John Green (good read by the way). After finishing the book, the lives of the characters seemed so entertaining and fascinating that I couldn't help but think it would be good to have a life like theirs. This isn't the first time this has happened. When I was younger, I used to be addicted to watching either Lord of the Rings or Pirates of the Caribbean, and I always wished that I could be one of the characters (usually Jack Sparrow because he is so awesome). 

Yet after finishing the book and recently watching a lot of Friends episodes, I thought why is it that lots of people who watch films and TV and read books find the fictional world so much more interesting than the real world? After all characters from a book are just words on a page, and every book is made up of the same 26 letters. The truth is, we do have the same exciting things happen in our lives, except all the boring stuff in between them isn't cut out. For example in Friends, there are episodes which span over a week long period, and the funny or significant parts of it all fit into a 30 minute episode. 

For a fantasy book or film such as Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones, obviously there are no dragons or trolls in the real world and there hasn't been a huge battle between good and evil which could determine whether the world is ruled by orcs. However take the two world wars for example. Evidently there was no magic or myth involved in them but they were heroic, but not desirable, all because they were real life. Take the film 'The Dam Busters' which is a incredibly engaging film about (yep you guessed it) the dam busters in World War II. Yet after watching it, I didn't wish I was one of the heroic busters, mainly because it involved the realistic truth. 

What I was intending to say is that people should not be put down because their life may not seem as interesting as Harry Potter or How I Met Your Mother. Remember that most of these films/books/TV episodes take place over weeks, months or even years. Your life is as interesting as the fictitious characters, just more spread out.

Blank Ideas

After thinking to myself 'I want to write more blog posts' and not really doing much about it, I have decided to do something about it. However I found myself a bit stuck. Mainly I didn't have anything to write about hence why I'm writing about not having anything to write about… if that makes any sense. The truth is, there have been many times where I have come onto the blog website to write a post, yet have gone back to Twitter or Youtube because I have just not been able to come up with any ideas which may be interesting to read. However I did lead to me asking myself - "What causes inspiration?"

My initial thoughts were other people, or as another way of putting it role models/idols. In my personal experience it is very common to find people's work being influenced by another. Why shouldn't we? I quite often see on social media sights such as youtube or, more recently, Vine, people using other people's ideas as inspiration for their own and getting a lot of hate for it. Yet I don't see any reason for the hate such as 'Get your own ideas' and other comments which are probably a bit rude for this blog. I can understand that if they claim the idea is their own then it will get people aggravated. Yet if I saw somebody inspired by one of my ideas, I would be greatly complimented that someone has deemed something I thought of good enough to recreate it themselves.

Yet I think that inspiration doesn't have to come from the people who we spend time with /would like to be, it is all around us. From a dishwasher to the Amazon rainforest, I think that if you look at something from the right angle, then it can inspire you to achieve your goals. For example, I wanted to write a blog post before the earth is swallowed up by the sun (that's how long I thought it would take at my previous rate of progress), however I visited Bournemouth University's open day yesterday and absolutely loved it, and that was my inspiration. I want to go there to study Communications and Media and so I thought to myself, I'm going to start up this blog post to help me stand out from the rest of the crowd which could entail with me studying at the university I want to. 

Hence after reading this, I would encourage you to look around and see what inspires you and act on it. Trust me, you'll feel like you've accomplished something if you do.