Obituary Challenge
Our challenge for week #2 on the Start-up tribe at Escape The city was to write our own obituary’s. I didn’t think much of it at the time, expecting to spend an hour writing down some goals and what not. So on the Wednesday afternoon, a few hours before the tribe began, I started to think of what I’d want to say. 10 minutes in, I knew I was screwed when I had 17 little post-it notes around me listing the past and future aspects of my life that I’d want to be remembered for. I was going for it!
3–4 hours later, I had scribbled an A4 page worth of obituary. Here’s the result:
Dear the Alive,
Be grateful. Stop thinking about doing that thing tomorrow as there may never be a tomorrow.
This was something that Jarryd Troy Dike (some would question whether his parents were bullies at school with a name like that) tried to stick to, but as we all know very well. It’s a lot easier to say, “I’ll do that tomorrow”. But don’t! Seize your opportunities. There are trillions upon trillions of weeks in eternity but only a tiny handful belong to you. Make them count. Learn. Teach. Grow.
Jay was born in South Africa into a family of Scots and Rhodesians and spent most of his childhood on the beach, on a farm or getting hurt. The outdoors and animals were probably the one thing that brought his family together on any occasion. In fact, Jay himself had a deep love for animals and he had quite the gift with them too. Being able to tame the wildest of animals on his farm back in South Africa. His most beloved friends were his dogs. By his side through everything (and much more obedient than his wife). Most notably, was Shadow. A cross between a Timberwolf and a Husky. She was a stunning mix of greys and blacks with a confident stance and a real bitchy attitude. By far his best friend. I mean with a name like that, of course a dog was his best friend!
From South Africa to England picking up an anti-tan and essex accent along the way, back to South Africa for schooling and early twenties development and then back to the UK again in search of his path and world travels, Jay never really had a place to settle in for longer than 3 or 4 years and this was evident in his inability to get too comfortable in one place for long periods or focus on one goal at a time. This is why he preferred the outdoors and being in nature so much. Jay viewed the outdoors as his home — It allowed him to explore his many hobbies and interests whilst meeting some of the most incredible people this world has to offer. One of his favourite things to do was to simply sit outdoors amongst a beautiful backdrop and be enraptured for hours on end. In fact, Jay was known for travelling to remote parts of the world, capturing that journey and the beauty through photography and being an expert in a different field almost every year.
He was never one for conformity or going with the flow so when Jay was 24, he got on his bicycle and proceeded to cycle for a bit until he had travelled across all 7 continents. He was the first man to cycle across Antartica. To this day no one knows how he did it but there’s wide speculation that he tamed a pack of polar bears and they helped him out. Jay expected this trip to take anywhere between 2–4 years but once he had completed this long cycle, Jay never really settled back into one place so in reality, the rest of his life was an adventure into new discoveries and further learning. Throughout this life of adventure and nature, he grew his family with his beautiful wife and 3 children on a farm in the mountains of South Africa. From this farm, Jay would design and craft beautiful wooden surfboards, canoes and furniture. This was more of his hobby, which he had a lot of time for after his photography company and taken off and was now self-sustainable. Allowing him and his family to travel between their many properties around the world. Along these travels, Jay cured the disease for procrastination, figured out how to spread wealth amongst the population curing poverty, passed a law to turn any evil or environment-hurting person into a tree which has reversed deforestation, discovered extra terrestrial life and made first contact, and somehow managed to tame the mammoth, which was the one thing that allowed him to truly excel and become the man he had always wanted to be. He also ate 386 000 chocolate bars, cycled 182 412 km’s, read 2145 books, ran 32 000 km’s, and wiped out on a surf board 1406 times. He loved the sound of a pencil on paper and was intrigued by the workings of the human mind.
As sad as we all are to hear of Jay’s death during his attempt to enter the matrix, you’ll be happy to hear that whilst I read this obituary, Jay’s consciousness is currently being uploaded into a megabadass robot and he’ll be joining us soon.
Viva la cryonics.
Jay’s 2 books will be on sale after the screening of the movie on his life.
It was fun. Not so much to read out in front of 37 people.
The whole objective of this assignment was simple, yet so effective. What do you want to achieve in your life? What do you want to be remembered for? How does your past influence and sculpt your future? Can you predict your own future based on where you, and the world, currently is? What are your values? It’s similar to writing a letter to your future self, but one you’d never get to read. Give it a try!
Follow my journey through the Start-up tribe on Instagram at @escthecity as well as right here on Medium. I’ll be documenting my learnings, failures, struggles and successes. So if you’ve been thinking about whether this programme is right for you, you’re in the right place to find out.
