Turning 24

Currently I'm twenty four and a half. In my childhood, "and a half" meant a lot. If you were five and a half, "and a half" would give you an advantage over those who were just five years old. This half of year were quite interesting for me and I was considering to write about this much earlier. Perhaps I didn't because I was thinking it could all end when I put it on paper.

When you meet people, they try to guess how old are you. In my case it was usually women who were interested into this. Most usual guess was 24. These statistics gave to this number special meaning. In my thoughts, I expected something special to happen when I turn 24. Special things did happen. I'll try to name few of them, the whole subject is rather large for me.

First thing which I noticed that I was happy. That was quite noticeable because last few years I was suffering for most of the time thinking about my great love and a nice dream which could now only live in my imagination. This fact destroyed some of the meaning in my life. When I was unhappy, I promised myself to appreciate much more times of happiness. Now I felt free! Other thing about being happy was that there wasn't any particular event or happening which made me feel happy. It wasn't like when I was traveling and meeting people, or won the lottery, or whatever. Simple as that, I was happy. It's something which I care about in my life and now it was happening. Will it last long? Don't know. I felt something new was happening to me and that this is the time of changes. It was leading to something big. Step in the right direction.

Feeling happy and free, feeling of changes... I was aware of the changes so I was ready to experiment with myself and with my life. Looking optimistically in life was something which I wanted to give a better chance, and now I did. I was smiling a lot, feeling happy, trying to be positive in all that was around me and in me. Interesting experiment. Nice story goes about the game of pictionary played in December with my friends from BEST. My partner and me were one of the losers together with one other team. On the other side were 2 teams to whom the victory was smiling. We were stuck at the very beginning, many steps behind the potential winners. People were laughing about my partner remembering his bad skills from the last game. I was quite enthusiastic and optimistic. When we did wrong, I was saying we were close and almost won, and when we guessed good, I was "out of my mind". Focus was put more on the game rather than on the winning, although I was encouraging us to win. At certain moment, we had some considarable winning strikes which unexpectedly lead us to victory. Amazing and glorious winning! At that time I applied one of projects in BEST for a grant and we got good money for it. And so on... Things were going pretty good. Not for everyone. One of my best friend who was always happy, now wasn't very happy. Some of my other friends as well. Economical crisis in the world was a big issue.

Let's get back to changes. Every morning I made morning rituals. That was streching the body, breathing exercises, meditation, shower which included cold shower as well. I beleaved this things were important aspect of staying happy. One other thing was that I finally got a girlfriend. She was great and really made me feel happy even more.

Here are some events from that time which were rather cool. In short time, some interesting things happened. At the very beginning, I volunteered on "Healthy cities" conference held in Zagreb. Huge event with lots of "important people". My job was to lead the group of high-school students who were supposed to assist the guests during the conference. Great experience, mainly due to feeling of being surrounded by great team from Voluntary center Zagreb who invited me to join this project. Later on I joined them on some other projects as well. They even made few really cool parties. I made a good training of communications for BEST with my friend. Soon after that I celebrated my birthday. After that together with other volunteers, we made surveys with people on the street about how safe they felt in the city. At that time there were few really bad incidents which happened in short time and made people of Zagreb feel unpleasant. On 20th of November, my friend Enis celebrated becoming an engineer and finishing of studies. That day I left the group for a while to give instructions to a girl, get some money and returned later to continue with the party. In Purgeraj we spoke to few groups of girls. There was one girl which I noticed, quite special she was. I clearly remember how she was shining in the dark, much different from anything I've seen before. Passed near her few times and felt I should get to know her. At a moment, my friend was stopped by her friend which made me instantly move towards her. We danced, talked, kissed. I managed to get her number, which wasn't easy to my surprize. Told her about Pink Floyd and "See Emily play". She download the song very soon and kind of liked it. Next day I thought about her for the whole day. I knew I was falling in love. The day after, I participated on "Intercultural navigators - selection event". Met few interesting people. Very soon I got news I was one of the selected ones. We, the selected ones, participated on 3 modules, talked about conflict solving, identities, groups, sharing different thoughts ... Nice stuff! After the selection event, I rode to Split to join IFISO meeting organised by a friend of mine. It's always cool to participate on this students meeting. Sleeping in the dorm, meeting new friends, partying, discussing, ... Then I went to Ljubljana on Aikido seminar with Kenjiro Yoshigasaki. First time to see him and I worked with his woman as a partner and he demonstrated few stuff on me. I was really special, heheh. When I got home, Andreja sent me SMS and wanted to meet me. We talked for few hours and laughed a lot. I learned a lot from very instance when I saw her shining that night. And from this one talk I learned many other important stuff about her, her views to a life and relationships. It was hard to feel surprised about things which later happened, altough I didn't know what would excatly happen. I wanted to give it a shot. A week later we met again on Beatles revival bend concert, kissed again. I hoped it will turn into more than something. In the December I volunteered again, selling magazines together with homeless people about homeless people. There I heard few interesting stories. Later we had few short actions with them as well. On one occasion we were to search for some artists among them. I was sent to some rather complicated home for them to meet with them. It sounded like it was being done because we should go there as well, but no one expected much from that visit. Anyway, we managed to find some guy who does some drawings on the cover of cans. In January we had intercultural navigators module in a hotel. All the expenses covered. Nice meeting with nice people. I was working on my thesis and managed to get some good results which I could finally demonstrate. That was a huge step. My thoughts from now on were with my girlfriend. Even thesis has an important module which is called by her name.

I got a feeling people around me felt very good in my presence. Many people wanted to hang out with me more than before. Many girls wanted to meet me which was great. I felt like I was shining happiness through my eyes and my hands and sometimes with my whole body. Specialy with my girlfriend. She gave me a lot and is still affecting my mind, my thoughts and my mood. She made me draw. I really like all the drawings which I gave it to her. We enjoyed art, listening to the music, commenting it, discussing about my drawings and art of Trnski. We massaged each other. We felt good. We laughed. Something which specially meant to me was this feeling of special energy flowing through my body when I was near her. I'm not talking about falling in love, this was something different, altough it was present as well. Something similar I felt on 2 seminars with Kenjiro Yoshigasaki. It's feeling of love and peace in yourself and being more aware. Something like that. I felt like that when I was near her, massaging her, sleeping with her,... She is one of the people to remember in your life. One of those who leave a big trace even when she's not around. But she is there somewhere. Since she wants to be gone perhaps I should let her go as well. It happened and I don't like it ended... I could say that so many things seem to be connected with her. She influenced me. Even in other stuff, I was thinking about her when I was doing them which makes her present in many thoughts and memories.... Hope she also has a nice memory of me.

What about now? When she left me, part of me just parted with her as well. It was something too important and somehow it got to connected to her. Now it's time to feel this hole with something new, something better and stronger. I'm still doing morning rituals. Just until lately it wasn't the same. I lost a lot, too much. "Life is a bitch". But as the spring is coming, I'm coming back as well. It was good to remember this positive aspects of something which was here only until few weeks ago. Let's continue with experiments, work harder, enjoy more & develop. I got some new/old ideas. I'm trying to analyze less and think less. I'm trying to feel more. But I'm distracted. When I go out, I'm thinking about her and just feel isolated from my enviroment and real world. That's why I want to think less :) I have goals and I'll work on that. Perhaps I'm still on the good path and this was something from which I learn. I'm looking forward for some spiritual experiences and development.

Writing of this text reminded me about many good stuff which happened in last months. I feel much better at the moment. I was laughing!