I’ve just cried by watching a Formula 1 race.
It sounds silly, I know, but it’s deeper than that.
Lando Norris won the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday evening, and it triggered a welcoming release of emotion, for us both.
I had been going through a weird phase this week, motivationally and emotionally, and Norris’ maiden victory tipped the latter into tears.
Now, I am by no means putting myself in the shoes of the F1 driver, but when it comes down to reality, we are both men, in our early twenties, who are trying to make it to the pinnacle of our industry… and not that it matters, but we also grew up locally, from Glastonbury, Somerset.
For those who don’t know, prior to Sunday, Norris has been chasing his first F1 win since he made his debut in 2019, and as time went on, fans were wondering if he had the nerve to actually win a race, after a few previous opportunities were missed.
Everyone could see that he had the talent, but questions were being raised about his mentality, and it stopping him from winning.
What was his mental block?
Well, we will never know because we are not Lando Norris, but whatever it was, he overcame it and the raw emotions prevailed.
Mental blocks can be formed and perceived in many ways, and so, dealt with in many ways.
I’m usually good at overcoming them, but this week it was frustrating.
This is also going to sound silly, but just trust me…
So, it all started when I was walking to Uni to do some work and I saw a man who looked like he could be Tommy Fleetwood’s twin brother (English golfer), short stature, long brown curly hair, dark eyes, he was a spitting image.
I laughed, and thought about how I was literally in the interview pen at the Masters not along ago with Tommy Fleetwood and the rest of golf’s elites, soaking in the hot, sun, and now I’m here in Uni having to smash out assignments in the cold, rain.
Simply, my brain was finding it hard to compute going from the highest highs, the imposter syndrome levels, to the ‘lows’ of still having to study to actually get my degree to prove I can do it.
Kind of backwards, right?
My brain was blocking my motivation and sapping my positive vibes, because it was still caught up in the Masters fever dream.
I spoke to my lecturers about it individually, in a chilled, relaxed setting, kind of hoping they’d treat it as a therapy session for me, which they did, and they helped me a lot by reaffirming that they’ve all been through it and to chase the next high, so thank you to them.
Despite this, that block was persistent, slowing down my usual assignment dominance, but I didn’t let it get the better of me and instead acknowledged it and made time in my week to do things that I enjoy and will help free my mind.
Well, kind of, I played a lot of mini-golf with my mates.
And I know, why would I play golf if that’s related to what was affecting me? I get that, but mini-golf is fun, and seeing my friend’s, Freddie and Nathan, throw tantrums when they lose makes it way better.
We invited our international student, Kaitlyn, who’s from Canada, to play mini-golf on Friday and she brought her Canadian friend who was staying with her that week with her too.
Freddie and Nathan threw their toys out the pram again and played horrendously, shock, but surprisingly it was Kaitlyn who won the game, maybe a rematch is needed before she flies home next week.
When I first met Kaitlyn back in late January, we clicked, and she’s been a great addition to the course, and certainly a friend for life.
I promised her that during her time in the UK, I’d show her the New Forest, as that’s one of my favourite areas, and that promise finally came true.
I drove Freddie, Kaitlyn and her Canadian friend Andra to a good spot I know in the New Forest on Wednesday evening, and it was one of the best evenings in a long time.
I love nature, and I’m very thankful to have been brought up in the New Forest, so being a tour guide was sweet.
Unfortunately for Freddie, the city boy, he decided to sod off the tour guide’s route and instead opted to go for a shorter, more direct path across the sodden marshes…
The second he diverted, he soon felt himself sinking a foot or so into the cold, muddy marsh water, triggering a panic response from the ankle up.
He proceeded to run in attempt to reach firm, dry ground, his limbs were flying everywhere in disarray amongst screeches of “OOOOOHHH NOOOO”, as with each stride he took, he saturated his once-white Nike Air forces and socks inside them.
He’ll learn.
Now, if that isn’t a prime example of doing something to take your mind off stuff then I don’t know what is!
Our course had an end of term pub crawl on Friday, with ‘shit’ shirts being the theme.
We worked our way from the bottom of the high-street towards the top, but our momentum haltered after our sixth stop, I think it was the sixth,I can’t remember exactly, in the Bedford pub, as they were hosting a karaoke night.
We overhauled the whole set, all 15 of us, along with a few stragglers who wanted to join in, and we went from song to song to song for over three hours long, until either our voices and or our liver perished.
Safe to say it was a superb night out, with the best people I get to call course mates and friends.
Thankfully I started work at 3pm on Saturday, the recovery sleep was needed.
I played cricket on Sunday which will always be good for my mind, win or lose, I love it, and somehow, despite all the rain, we got a game in and we won!
So, in a week full of university assignment hand ins – noticed how I’ve not mentioned that yet – I managed to do a lot of stuff to keep me entertained.
I’d like to think I’m in tune with myself and feelings, to which this week has been true and tested.
Despite having this mental block, I could still understand my feelings, in fact, I even predicted them.
On Thursday evening I cooked dinner for myself and Freddie – I do most nights, I cook, he cleans – and I outwardly said to him as he was washing up, “Do you ever get the feeling that you are due a cry?”
He was like “Nah, not really”, which is perfectly okay.
Just to point out that ‘The Scientist’ by Coldplay was playing on the speaker during this time, an emotional song.
But, I could feel this emotion building up all week, and all it took was Lando Norris to win his first Formula 1 Grand Prix to open the floodgates.
As Chris Martin said in The Scientist, “Nobody said it was easyyyyyyyyyy.”
Read last week’s blog here…
