By Lawrence Slater

 

Enemies 

 

Beer

Running

Writing

Olives

Early mornings

Baths

Reading

Brushing my teeth

Broccoli

Swimming lessons

Going for walks 

 

All these things have one thing in common, at some point in my life I HATED them and now I really enjoy all of these things except two of them……

 

I think most kids probably avoid olives and beer so nothing unusual there. As a kid they taste GROSS. But as your taste buds develop and with the help of other people around you eating them you try them again and again and slowly like them. 

 

Someone once told me that your taste buds change around every seven years throughout your life. I love this fact, who cares if it’s true or not, I can’t wait to see what I’m eating when I’m 70.

 

Anyway, why do you go from strongly disliking something to loving it?

 

The stress I used to cause my dad by not wanting to go to my swimming lessons as a kids I now feel a bit bad about. I remember him having to wrestle me out of the car in the leisure centre car park. He was doing this for my own good so I could learn a valuable life skill, but I couldn’t see that, I had no friends in my class and I didn’t want to go! These days I swim most mornings before work. It wakes me up and makes me feel alive. It gives me a sense of satisfaction I don’t think you can ever feel as a child. That squeeeezing lots in and getting shit done satisfaction. So what changed? It didn’t just click one day that I now love swimming. Do people just naturally dislike things they are being forced to do?

 

I think running is an interesting one, I never did any running until my friend offered me a spare ticket to run a half marathon, I already play a lot of football, it can’t be that hard I thought. The day came of the half marathon and I hadn’t done a single training run cos yeh I don’t really like running. But with my family watching I ran the whole thing in a good time. Wow I loved it! I’m now hooked on running. I had never previously felt the satisfaction after a long run. The struggle is worth it for the achievement and feeling of satisfaction.

 

OMG so why have I always struggled so much with reading and writing? It’s not hard. kids do it, grannies do it and everyone in between. Loads of people seem to really enjoy it, mad. Maybe it’s my short attention span, I find it very hard to sit still and watch a movie so yeah reading a book is going to be a challenge. Writing? What do I have to say? 

 

As a child my older brother said everything for me, according to my parents I never said a word. My delay in speaking for myself quite possibly could have set me back a bit.

 

I actually thoroughly enjoyed making this list, thinking about the small battles I had with each of these things how a little perseverance really does give rewards and make everything better in the long run….  

 

and I actually enjoyed writing this 🙂