It’s amazing how memories can come flooding back at the most unexpected times. Earlier this week, I watched this YouTube video of world-class juggler Vova Galchenko. I was immediately transported back to 2009, which is when I first watched that video. Although I had learned to juggle several years before then, 2009 was the year I got back into it and learned that there was more to juggling than I had ever imagined possible. That was a wonderful year for me and a lot of it has come rushing back to me this week.
As I watched that video, I remembered being back in high school, juggling in the backyard even on the hottest days of that Florida summer, and connecting with other people who also shared this passion. I could feel the same emotions I felt back then, including the sense of wonder at constantly finding new things to try and the joy of regularly seeing myself getting better. Those feelings reminded me of another video of Sébastien Tari improving at 7 ball juggling. That video, which I also watched in 2009, was incredibly magical as it showed his journey from barely being able to juggle a 7 ball cascade to having it down fairly well. Watching that video, especially after a backyard practice session, was exactly the inspiration and motivation I needed at that time since I was struggling to juggle 5 balls. I credit him with reminding me that there is often a great deal of struggle behind the juggle, that it’s ok to not be one of the best jugglers in the world, and that a huge amount of the joy in juggling comes from the journey.
A lot has changed for me in the past 10 years. Outside of the monthly juggling event that I host in a nearby park, I hardly juggle at all nowadays. I still enjoy it, I’m close to the skill level I had when I was juggling all the time, and I love teaching, sharing, learning from, and juggling with other people. I doubt any of that will change anytime soon. But I also have many more interests now than I did when I spent most of my free time juggling. Knowing myself as I do and understanding how habits work, I know that I could return to juggling at least a few minutes every day if I wanted to. I’d like to do that, and maybe writing this blog post is just what I needed to make it happen. I think that I’m remembering and experiencing all of this right now for a good reason and I’ve learned to follow my intuition on these things. I don’t know where this next leg of my journey will take me but I’m looking forward to finding out and having fun along the way.