Imagine being a piece of bubblegum. What an adventure! Not one for the faint hearted or germaphobic, but one for the curious and eager.

You start your colourful life in a safe paper-come-plastic wrapper, sitting in a large clear jar with your identical relatives all around you. Daily you watch as dozens of wide eyed, chubby fingered, little people shuffle in and out of the candy store in which you live.

Excitement rises each time the jar lid is twisted off by the shop assistant. This time you’re feeling lucky. A small grubby hand swirls around the jar and grasps you tightly; lifting you out of your containment and into a world of possibilities. A loud bang echo’s back into the jar as the assistant pops the big bubble she’s just blown with your uncle. Goodbye womb. Hello adventure!

Upon leaving the store, your new owner takes the hand of his ‘big person’ while using his other to thrust you into darkness. By the feel of things, you’re in a boy’s pocket. An earthworm wiggles over your wrapper as you feel a Tom-Thumb cracker poking into your side. After a jostled romp (on what you gauge to be a jungle gym) you’re hoisted out of the pocket. You’re unceremoniously unwrapped and popped into the boy’s warm slobbery mouth. A combination of energetic teeth and tongue make you tickle and giggle as you get thrown from pallet to cheek in the 7 year old mouth.

Within no time you find yourself in a restricted zone. You’re not moving, but the boy is coughing frantically. You hear a ‘big person’ shriek and with one swift thump on the boy’s back you’re flying through the air. Landing on a hot patch of gravel you’re stationary once more. In awe you observe your wondrous surrounds. Bees buzzing, blades of grass glistening, the sun peeping through the… *STOMP* Woooaah! *STOMP* What? *STOMP* Is? *STOMP* Happening? *STOMP*.

Someone has just stepped on you and by the looks of it is heading for a large pile of tubular naturally processed Husky dog food (if you know what I mean).

What is about to happen is an obstacle, its not the end. It will ensure that you are no longer a generic piece of elastic chewing gum. You have character, you have history; you are unique. *Squelch*.

The moral of the story? Shit Happens. At the end of the day we are all moulded by our experiences both good and bad. Life is an adventure and the person we become is a result of how we decide to deal with ‘shit’ that comes our way.