Snakes and Ladders

Considering life is widely euphemised as a game, it is hardly surprising that someone went one step further in creating an actual board game devoted to the Game of Life. Whether you’re fortunate enough to be enjoying a winning streak or you’re becoming a serial loser, luck aside; above all, the game of life requires skill. The skill to get that perfect job, good friendship skills to keep the very best of friends, even skill to dust yourself off after yet another fall.
For a handful of jammy graduates, exciting opportunities have swiftly followed the definitive day of donning a robe and shaking the hand of a smiling stranger. For some, it may have been down to an intervention of lady luck, for others, it may have been down to skill and hard graft. Either way, you gotta like their odds.
After spending the last few months living in my Uni town, the summer has quickly disappeared. Though this summer has had it’s highlights, I can’t help comparing these last post-graduate months to the morning after the night before; emotionally draining, a little awkward and feeling like you may have overstayed your welcome. Now with the prospect of moving back to my sleepy hometown until I have saved adequate funds to live in London, I can’t help feeling like I’ve taken another nauseating slide straight past a ladder and down a snake.
Alas, every cloud has a silver lining. There is a ladder somewhere in the near future. And it leads straight to the dizzy new heights of New York City. Armed with a suitcase and one of those bestest of friends, next month I plan to arrive, and if all goes to plan, somewhere in the not too distant future, I plan to conquer.
Though I know this experience will be one of the experiences of my life, one big fat snake awaits first, to take me on one final, heart-wrenching trip down south, leaving me breathless and emotionally exhausted at the finish line of Uni life. Inevitably, there will be more goodbyes than I care to anticipate; bye bye room that I love, maybe see you around good friends, and adieu to a boy that became the boy, even in a relationship as complicated as this one.
With what little life experience I already have under my belt, I would say that the skill to pick yourself up after a great fall can often be the most useful of ‘get out of jail free’ cards. As long as you can resurrect a little spirit and lust for life when the chips are down, you’re still in the game. There will always be winners and losers. There will always be the beginning of a new chapter to follow the end of the previous. There will always be ups and downs, though when you’re truly down and out, the only way is up. Luckily enough, that’s life.