As a child, I remember overhearing, what I then considered, “old” people talking about living life to the fullest. As I matured, and the rush of life set in, I was haunted by the truth of what those “old” people knew.
So awhile ago, I decided to tap into that familiar, yet almost abandoned, adventurous spirit of my younger years; I purchased, and learned how to ride a motorcycle. Initially, I had to conquer the fear of navigating an inherently dangerous combination of riding a motorcycle on a busy highway alongside possibly less than attentive drivers. Purchasing my bike was a good decision. Now, when I ride, because I am able to enjoy the landscape from a different perspective while the wind is gently massaging my face, I have a sense of freedom that is difficult to describe. Riding has become for me the perfect antidote to a stressful day.
My motorcycle purchase further empowered me seek out, and explore new challenges and experiences. Freshly armed with the success of rising above my fears, I decided to try something that promised to be interesting because it was vaguely familiar, compellingly strange, and somewhat foreign: social networking.
Yes, I know riding a motorcycle is challenging but given my level of computer literacy, I knew I was venturing into some seriously dangerous territory. I had a Facebook page, but I did not know to “post” a message. Let’s not even talk about the complexity of posting a message AND a picture. Thankfully, I had the benefit of a compassionate, understanding friend of the geek persuasion, who was kind enough to share her knowledge, without recoiling in horror and gasping in response to my rudimentary knowledge.
One day, confident in my recently acquired cyber skills, I bravely posted a message AND a picture, without the step-by-step instructions and reassurances of my friend. Ta-dah! I did it without a hitch! Now that I had conquered Facebook, I wondered what became of that Twitter account I had secured a long time ago. Did it lie dormant to the point of some administrative extinction? Could it be reactivated? More importantly, how do you Tweet without people knowing you’re not a computer twit? Well I discovered my Twitter account was still there, waiting to be utilized. Determined not to strain my friendship with the computer geek by blasting her with an avalanche of questions, I purchased one of those inexpensive how-to books. I am proud to say, that I am now able to post a tweet from both my computer, and cell phone. Genius! My bike and computer experiences reaffirmed what I learned from listening to my older relatives. That is, life is about the journey and we should seek out opportunities not only for personal growth, but we should endeavor to live life to the fullest.
Now if I can only learn how to respond to other tweets and figure out how to get people to follow me. I guess that is an adventure for another day.
Follow Laverne on Twitter (and see if she can tweet back) @GaRuleoflaw.
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