Borrowed from : http://klieon.wordprress.com/
I remember a while back watching something either on NatGeo or Discovery about Eagles.
Now, it’s general knowledge that the Eagle, a bird of prey is often regarded as the King of the sky. His splendour is a thing to behold as he soars high above the clouds then plunges at break-neck speeds to the earth to seize his prey.
There are many types of eagles, but the most famous is the American Bald Eagle. His wing span can reach up to 8 feet long! I’m only 6′ 1”! They can see up to 1.5 miles away, fly at speeds of 35 mph and dive at over 100 mph!
What I found to be particularly interesting though, is that, being lords of the skies and all, they tend to make their nests in trees and cliff sides no lower than 75 feet high. Can you imagine breaking through your shell and already being at the top of the world? But it’s not all glamour. The Eagle isn’t the King of the sky by accident. Think about what it means to hatch at 75 feet in the air…. think…keep thinking… got it yet?… well, aside from not being able to get pizza delivered, it means that these little suckers have ONCE CHANCE TO LEARN TO FLY!…yep…ONCE CHANCE!
An eagle generally lays about three eggs in one sitting. If all three hatch successfully, chances are, one of them will learn to fly without accident. These baby eagles must wait until they have fully developed motor skills before they can attempt that horrible plunge. They’ll practice flapping around in the nest to build their strength, perhaps try flying from one end to the next, and maybe argue fiercely over who gets to go first! But when the time comes to make that fateful leap, it’s do or die chickies! Let’s just hope mommy perched above the sea so your punishment will be less…messy.
So, what I’m getting at here is; what if we only had one chance to succeed in life? One chance to do our best or simply die. Truth is, many people don’t even get that chance. The persons suffering under tyrannical regimes don’t have that chance to succeed, so many of them do die. And those of us who do have not just ‘the chance’ but many chances waste them.
This is not meant to be a humanitarian trip. I’m simply pointing out how spoiled we have all become in the West. I remember sitting in class one morning. A girl walked in half an hour late and sat down, no book, pen, nothing…just her blackberry in hand and style fi stone dog (pardon the expression). Now, instead of finding out what she’s missed so far, she begins fretting because her BB is about to die and she can’t find a plug in the class. “Now, what the hell?”, I think to myself. That’s what you spent your school fee on?… your damn Blackberry? I hate this zombified culture we’ve created with these damn devices; people just walking around bumping into things because their BBs have them soooooo distracted. There’s no connection, no soul in anyone.
Anyways, this isn’t a BB rant either. I just thought I’d air my little observation that WE ARE WASTING THE CHANCES WE GET IN LIFE! We already get too many of them! How can you have persons going to UWI and not knowing shit about what’s going on around them when the library is so well-stocked and equipped and the internet is EVERYWHERE (even in the palm of our hands). You’re at one of the oldest educational institutions in the Caribbean; one that has put out the most Prime Ministers in the world, and some of the greatest minds; people who have worked along side Al Gore on his climate change research, people who have contributed to glaucoma research so much that their findings have changed medical practice throughout the globe and these are people who didn’t have portable internet in their pockets, no mounds of money to throw away on re-sits and no time to waste.
I think we all owe it to ourselves (yes, because I’m just as guilty as everyone else) to start taking these crocus bag-fulls of opportunity and chances and start making them count as if they wont be coming ’round again. We never know when we’ll see the bottom of that bag and Lady Luck doesn’t dance for us like she used to.
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