-_-

I push open the old-style Irish pub door and wince as I’m instantly overwhelmed with the stench of beer and cigarette smoke. Emitting a warm, becoming smile, I acknowledge unfamiliar yet familiar faces that silently greet me.

“There’s nothing like the Sean,” grunt the regulars, drunkenly sipping at their pots.

They’ve got potential.

You envisage these guys in ten years time, seated sloppily in the same pub, on the same chair with the same blank expressions on their faces as they stare at the same grotty TV screen, watching the same game…

How I wish I could place myself in their shoes. I wonder if they feel fulfilment as they sip at their drinks and watch their beards and stomachs grow before their own eyes. Have they ever felt the essence of love, satisfaction, companionship and celebration? Do they ever feel an urge to step outside the square and do something different with their lives? To connect with people on many levels, to share part of yourself with someone and for them to share back?

Perhaps they don’t.

But perhaps they do.

Breaking free from the ropes of a country upbringing is a difficult, uphill struggle for many. Often youths are too content to settle their lives for the sake of convenience.

Youth is a rite of passage. For some, it is about struggling through adolescence in quest of dreams, purpose and friendship. For others, by choice, it is about monotony.

I wonder how these men will feel when they hit 40. Will they still be relaxed and easy at the bar on a Saturday night?

They’ll be the ones carving up the dance floor at our beloved C59 SClub7, grabbing at 17 year old girls and practically begging to buy them drinks.

Now who’s laughing?

Poor buggers.