To Quote Steve Jones, “A Lot of the Best Things in my Life Have Come About Because of the Worst Things”
Guitarist for the Sex Pistols, Steve Jones, has a book available called Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol for those who don’t know. After reading it, there was one quote by Steve Jones in particular that hooked me. Placed towards the beginning, it set up the rest of the book quite well, and I thought I’d share it while explaining what it did for me. Here it is:
“When it comes to what defines me as a person, a lot of the best things in my life have come about because of the worst things, which is weird one when you try and think about divine intervention and all that bollocks. It would be a pretty twisted kind of God who would say, ‘Let’s abuse that child so he can go off the rails and form a band.’ But looking back, I do feel like someone or something – God, destiny, whatever you want to call it – definitely threw me a lifeline in giving me music to hang on to. Without that I was in serious danger of getting swept away by a tide of f*cked-up sh*t.”
Quote by Steve Jones in Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol
There is much to digest with the above paragraph. Devine intervention, right & wrong. How we all tend to dwell on these subjects for too long, no? What’s interesting to me when reading this paragraph is how right he is when it comes to the so-called “worst things” in life turning out to be the “best things.” At my worst, I would have slapped a person who told me this. My reaction would be as he mentioned, “What kind of God would do this?” When you’re in pain, it’s hard to realize anything will come of it. All you want is for it to be over. But now that I am a bit older, it’s hard to disagree with Steve Jones‘ statement. Looking back at the worst moments of my life, and the terrible situations I had to deal with ultimately led me to my current life which I love. While I might not want to digress into my childhood trauma leaving those juicy details for another day, there is one particular week that I would share so you can relate.
The particular week I reflect on occurred about 2 years ago. I called it one of the worst weeks of my life and one of the best weeks at the same time. I was in a friend group I was fond of, and one of the members in the group demanded something from me I was unwilling to give. As a response, and to set my own boundaries, I walked away from the friend group. It was an incredibly hard decision and I felt like a villain.
After making the decision, I was left alone and curious about my worth. I started heading down this crazy path of what I wanted from life. One of the things that came from it was this blog and countless other decisions that resulted in a great amount of self-satisfaction and self-assurance. Safe to say I am ultimately happy with my decision to walk away from something that no longer served me.
I lay this down in the hopes to let you know if you are in pain – keep going. Give them f*cking hell. Don’t stop. Don’t give in. Don’t give up. And raise a middle finger to any who try to beat you down or put you in a place that is anything but what you believe you are cable of. You are powerful and worth it. For those with a sad, broken history never forget – you’re in good company.
Rock on, swine.