“You’re not hearing me, JJ. You’re a musician. It’s not just what you did. It’s who you are. And I’m not saying you’re going to be a successful musician. I don’t even know if you’re a good one. It was just that I could see you’d be no use to anyone if you stopped. And look what happened. You break the band up, and five minutes later you’re standing on the top of a tower block. You’re stuck with it. And without it you’re dead. Or you might as well be.”

This quote is from a recent book I just finished last week which is called, A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby.

What Consumed Me?
Many of us are like this, whether it be music, school, cars, computers, sports or whatever else we like to do specific things more often than others and at times it consumes us. I mentioned something similiar in a past article found here. The shocking truth to this quote is that JJ still didn’t understand what his ex-girlfriend was saying and in life most people don’t take the time to step back and realize their own situation and how it is effecting them. At a time in my life I was one dimensional, I dreamed, sweated, intoxicated myself with the world of automobiles. I still love them, but I don’t let it totally consume me as it did in the past. Whenever I would talk to people automobiles will always come up some way; had tons of friends that loved automobiles; tried to go to as many racing event’s as much as possible; I read tons of car magazines and books; and watch television shows and movies that dealt with cars.

You Start to Wake up When Others Tell You

I started to realize that all I knew was cars, I didn’t have much to talk about to people, it just sucked being just a listener and not a contributer to the conversations, and it really drove me crazy. That is when I looked at myself and determined that there is more to me than cars. And there is more to everyone else then what is currently consuming them. I am not saying drop what you love to do, but continue to explore other things that you may enjoy and love because no one really knows if they will like something if they don’t try it.