My Name Is Jasper

Introduction

"Let me give you one piece of advice," she says, a little nervous but trying to look confident, "write a book" Why? "It's easy, really, and a lot of fun". It's 10PM on a Sunday and I am doing the dishes. I like doing the dishes, gives me time away from whatever screen I was watching, time to think. Worst possible time to quote a movie, but who cares: "We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off" (1). As I am trying to clean the dried up egg yolk from a cup, a familiar thought flashes through my mind: I want to matter! I want to live, explore, put my mark on the world... "I don't think that there's anything worse than being ordinary" (2). And somehow I remember the advice Sharon gave me and a couple of colleagues at the beginning of her presentation. She was applying for a job, and the presentation was her final test. She wrote a number of books. Does that make her less ordinary than any of the people I passed by today? I don't know. Will writing this make me less ordinary? Probably not. Am I pissed off? Absolutely not. And that's a problem.

Shall we take a few steps back? Sharon got the job by the way.

My name is Jasper. I'm Belgian. I never really thought about my nationality as part of my identity. In fact, I'll bet most Belgians don't, we typically don't have national pride. That is excluding the days our national soccer team beats the Dutch. But, about a year and a half ago I moved to Canada, and all of the sudden it became a thing. "Wow, you're Belgian? That's awesome" They tell me with a look on their face as if I just pulled a magic trick in front of their eyes. I show them my Belgian ID card. Abracadabra. When they learn my last name, they go completely wild. So now I'm Jasper 'The' Man, The Belgian Guy.

So here's the deal, I'm writing the book and you're reading it. Great, I feel us bonding already! Why am I writing the book? Well, let's find out.

"Two thirds of what you write is pure shit" great advice from my Dutch teacher back in secondary school Mr. Lavigne. I'll do my best to present only the remaining third. "And in English too. So I can die with a smile on my face." (3) Not writing this in my mother tongue will at least keep me to the point. I am a talker, last thing we need is me trying to be overly literary.

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1: Quote from the cult classic Fight Club (20th Century Fox - 1999) by the charismatic Tyler Durden, portrayed by Brad Pitt. He often ranks at the top of various movie character list, taking the nr. 1 spot in Empire's 100 Greatest Movie Characters (with Darth Vader and Heath Ledger's The Joker winning silver and bronze)

2: Quote from that other iconic 1999 movie American Beauty (DreamWorks Pictures) by high school queen Angela Hayes, played by Mena Suvari. American Beauty, director Sam Mendes' debut, became the big winner of the 2000 Award season, raking in 5 Academy Awards, 6 BAFTA's, 3 Golden Globes and a whopping 75 other statues.

3:  It takes very little for me to start quoting the Big Lebowski (Working Title Films, Polygram Filmed Entertainment – 1998), my favourite movie of all time. I only mention it because sometimes there's a man... I won't say a hero, 'cause, what's a hero? But sometimes there's a man, sometimes, there's a man. Aw... I lost my train of thought here. But... aw, hell. I've done introducing enough.