When one just can't let go

As the world moves at steady pace, we would be fools not to keep up with the times. Well I guess for many this is the case. Living in the past is surely impossible when things move at such an alarming rate. To use a quick example - my old 32MB MP3 player was easily my best friend a few years back (sorry if anyone is offended by that, but hey, I loved that thing). It only held 9 songs at one time, which I listened to on a loop en route to uni every 3 days of a week. Yet now I have sampled the awesome power of a 20GB iPod I would surely never go back. Why, I hear you yelp? Exactly the reason why many wouldn't go back - the new MP3 player is way better than the 32MB one could ever be, because if I went back to using it I would yearn for the 5,000 songs at quick access instead of a measly 9 songs.

This seems hardly the type of thing i shouldnt go on about in a post of One Man. But I suppose I have encountered many people in my life who just cannot move on and embrace what is new, what is modern, not even what is tomorrow, but what is today. I love listening to the multitude of media my iPod has to offer, but that doesn't mean I now hate or ever hated those days of 9 track commutes. Those 9 tracks had a meaningful significance in my earlier days, but not now because I have accepted times have changed and curiously I relish what the future brings.

Now before you think I'm only taking about portable music players, think again. It astounds me as to how people want to live in the past. Some people I know want to still be in school, they still want to be in a safe environment which they could never experience again. I guess it goes something like this: We all have a time in our lives when we feel good about ourselves, our lives and the people around us. When the time comes for that to change for whatever reason, we stop at nothing to prolong it for as long as possible. As each person around changes one by one, you are forced to decide what is for the best - go with the trend and start a new, or remain defiant, like a punk rocker in his 30's. If no-one changes around you and you have no wish to change, well I guess you will be 16 years old all your life.

But heres the bigger picture I guess. We all change. Without change we are merely the same animal day in day out, walking ourselves into a short-sighted march of mindless repetition. You change to see the person you were before. I know I spent my first year in uni as a booze driven, bone idle and pathetic waster, who could have done so much more to better myself. I now know that my way of life at the moment is for me - until of course, it is time to change. It will come in a disguised form, but I know it will be coming.

I suppose I can look back and think it wasn't all that bad, because it wasn't. I had a ball; learnt a load about myself and I guess I grew up. But thats it you see - it was spent growing up. As the human critic that I am and we are, Im sure I will look back and cringe at most of what I've done. At the same time, I still know listening to those same 9 tracks was pretty great at the time.

I suppose we are all guilty of failing to move on. Why move if you're comfortable? Why move if all is well? Good point. But let me tell you something I've learned in my short experience on this planet - you are never comfortable or well. You are a camoflaging animal. You change your spots all the time to stay in the game and that is something you cannot deny. If you don't, you risk extinction from life, from love, from power. Just ask Silvio.