Do you ever ask “what if” questions? I do. All the time.
Sometimes they’re negative. What if I can’t do it? What if I stuff it up? What if it doesn’t work?
And sometimes they’re positive. I like those ones.
So the other day, thanks to Olympus, I was lucky enough to have lunchity lunch with top blogger Chantelle from Fat Mum Slim and nine other lovely ladies. To say I was excited about it was an understatement. In fact, I was so beside myself that I had another “what if ” moment. What if I spontaneously combust with excitement before I get there? As it turned out, I needn’t have worried, I arrived in one piece.
So there I was in the beautiful Otto restaurant over looking the water, eating the finest food, with some wonderful women and my all time favourite blogger, and I almost had to pinch myself. This was really happening.
Then I got to thinking, how did I get to be here?
So I thought, to myself, what if I hadn’t got cancer?
Well, if I hadn’t had cancer, I wouldn’t have started blogging.
If I hadn’t started blogging, I wouldn’t have started reading blogs.
If I hadn’t started reading blogs, I wouldn’t have got hooked on social media.
If I hadn’t got hooked on social media, I wouldn’t have made so many wonderful connections.
If I hadn’t made those connections, I wouldn’ t have made new friends and had amazing adventures, just like this.
And there you have it, strange as it sounds, if it hadn’t been for cancer I probably wouldn’t have been there at that time, in that place, at that moment enjoying one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Sure, I’ve been out for fancy dinners, made new friends and met famous peeps before* but I’ve never enjoyed such a trifecta of happiness all in one experience.
I have a notoriously bad memory (blame it on my thyroidlessness if you like, I do,) and can barely remember what I did five minutes ago, but ask me about that one time when I met Chantelle and the girls for lunchity lunch and I guarantee I’ll remember every single detail.
Because precious moments are fleeting but memories last forever.
I’ll remember how as if Chantelle’s presence wasn’t enough, she gave us presents. (She gives great gift, by the way.) How cute is the teeny weeny camera?!
I’ll remember how lovely the lunch was.
I’ll remember how I made new friends and instagreeted peeps I’d been stalking, oops, I mean following on Instagram for like, forever. And… how I got photo bombed! I’ll remember that I was able to cross off a couple of cool tasks on my 101 things to do in 1001 days list including meeting a blogger and meeting an online friend in a real life. Check. Check.
I’ll remember how we played with the amazing Olympus E M-10 and I dreamed that one day I too would have a big girl’s camera.
I’ll remember how the sun shone on the water just like a midsummer’s day, even though it was the end of Autumn.
I’ll remember how I took a selfie with Chantelle who was as lovely in real life, as she is on the interwebs, only even lovelier.
How my heart was happy dancing all day.
You see, I’ll remember all that for always. And I’ll also remember that with the right mindset, really good things can come out of something really bad.
If you could have lunch with anyone, who would you choose?
* I once met Chris Martin before Coldplay got uber famous and offered to be the group’s personal astrologer. Not surprisingly he never took me up on it. For the record, I predicted they would get really famous.
