There’s Nothing Like The First

Have you ever read a book or watched a movie that had a truly deep effect on you? I’m sure everyone has, and I’m also sure that everyone says the same thing to themselves after reading or viewing it: “I wish I could be experiencing this for the first time again.”

We, as people, feel attached to feelings and experiences over anything else. You watch your favorite movie, and the one thing you’d want more than anything is to watch it again for the first time. It’s clearly logical that you can only watch something once for the first time. It’s a sad truth.

My favorite movie is Fight Club, and every single time I watch it, I wish I could be watching it for the first time. If you’ve ever repeated something that you’ve enjoyed, you desperately wish that you were experiencing it from the very beginning. And although there is no possible way to make it like the primaries and remembering it, there are some actions to take so that what you’ve done lasts a lifetime.

Remembrance. Don’t forget what it felt like by making some form of personal goals, beliefs, or life lessons that you’ve set or gained from your specific encounter. With Fight Club, for example, there are many quotes and dogmas that I take into account when I go about my daily routines, my normal life. Let what you have gained from your experience change you for better or for worse, because you might regret it if you don’t.

Let’s not forget about basic life experiences, though. Often times, we observe something that is nature at its most random, and will most likely never occur again before your eyes or ears. It can be anything from a god coming down from the heavens and talking to you, or something as simple as an eagle diving down and snatching a squirrel in your presence.

Although I highly doubt anyone has seen a god, that is of minimal importance. What is relevant is whether the observer truly believes that he was lying in his god’s presence and what sort of impact it had on him. From this, he may gain certain principles and opinions that will most likely shape the rest of his life according to what had happened to him; same goes for the smaller stuff. Just as well with the eagle snatching the squirrel, one may expand this minimal observation and press certain ideologies to his life. He might say, “The world might be more vicious than I thought;” In correlation, it might confirm certain speculations involving previous encounters: “The world is vicious, just like I guessed before.”

Every little thing that one does can have the biggest impact on him. It’s all about perception—the way one sees things. Each thing can simply be defined by how it appears or what it obviously means, or that same thing can have a deep philosophical meaning to which one can learn a life lesson from. It’s a big world, even in its tiniest specs.