You Can't Outrun Yourself
Life is too short to let other people’s misery drip into your head like a leaky tap. You scroll through your phone, and there’s another reel, some guy, born and raised in Glasgow, moaning about the rain, about how there’s nothing to do, about how he’s got to get to Dubai. And if you watch enough of that? It gets in. Like rot. Suddenly you’re looking out your own window and you’re feeling shite.
My parents travelled eight thousand miles. They left everything. Family, food, smell of home, the whole lot. Came here with probably not much more than a suitcase and a prayer. And they didn’t moan. They worked. They saw Scotland, Glasgow specifically for what it is; a place that gives you a chance. The people took them in. The city gave them a life. And now I’m here, their kid, benefitting from all that graft and grit.
So how on earth does someone born here, with a passport, with the NHS, with free education growing up, with Loch Lomond forty minutes up the road, how do they get to say I can’t make it here? It’s not about everyone having the same chances. Some have it harder. But when your head’s full of crap, when you’re constantly planning the escape instead of living the life? You’re not even trying. Waiting to run to fix something that’s actually inside you.
What’s crazy is they’ll get to Dubai. First week, they’ll post a story of the pool. Second week, the mall. Third week, they’ll realise it’s forty degrees at midnight, they can’t afford the rent, and nobody calls them ‘wee pal’ at the corner shop. And they’ll still be miserable. Because you can’t outrun yourself.
So be grateful. Be happy. You’ve got east coast, west coast, the Trossachs, the NC500 like, seriously, You’ve got the friendliest, funniest, most straight talking people in the UK. And to top it off, you’ve literally got the UK’s number one coffee shop, The Ottoman Coffeehouse, right here in Glasgow.
If you can’t make a good life with all that? That’s not Glasgow’s fault, mate. That’s your head.
Now scroll past the moaners. Go get a coffee and look at the sky. You’ll be alright, I could go on, but I’ll leave it there.
Forgot to mention the chippy
#ottomancoffeehouse #glasgow #scotland #glencoe
