I met Boris Johnson!

So I was on my lunch break from college today and as I wondered into a crowd I found Boris Johnson, yeah the Mayor of London with the funny hair cut and the cycling obsession.
I step back from the crowd just to take it all in, still shocked I walked in a big circle round the whole crowd and got this rubbish picture from behind a TV camera.

Boris from a distance 

I was just about to walk away when something in me told me to actually go and meet the guy. I shuffled back in to the crowed a bit a spotted a man all dressed in his best suit with a massive if not slightly nervous smile, he could only have been in his late 20s, you could tell he was in charge by the look on his face read that he had been planning this for ages and it was to be the crowing moment of his career. 

I casually asked him what was going on here, he replied with a very rehearsed answer 'the Mayor of London has come to Bedford in support of Richard Fuller (bedford's MP) in the run up to the next General Election'. 

I made a quick comment of how much of a shock it all was but he didn't seem to want to say much, he just started at Boris as though he didn't want to forget a single second of this day. 

My inner politics student then kicked in, I walked up to Boris as he was shaking some peoples hands, tapped him on the shoulder and held out my hand to great him. 

It was at this very moment the my inner politics student ran away from me; I couldn't think of anything politically interesting to say, but I stayed calm and simply asked for advice for someone going to University to study Politics. 

He replied enthusiastically and said thats great and then gave a slightly confused look which is when I realised he had not actua''y studied politics, he beckoned Richard over who told me it will be great, just keep working hard. 

Boris then had two lines of wisdom for me:

• Be a politician but get something on the side too because there's no money in politics
• The best book to read for studying politics is the Godfather!

And that was it, my encounter lasted less than a minuet but I won't forget it.

More importantly it left me thinking, I haven't done anything relating to my future political studies since I began my gap year, its all just been work. I love my job but politics is a real passion of mine (even if I am an undecided voter). So I am looking into getting some work experience or joining a campaign for someone like the Green Party (young, radical, anti-establishment seeping out there).

My thinking has continued in to the evening and it has left me feeling like I should do some extrodinary things in my Gap year. I don't necesarily mean a lot of traveling as I would rather do that on my year in Hong Kong University, I mean volunteer work and things like that. Currently on my list I have 3 things 

• Be more politically active, even if it's not in completely true support of the party just do it for the experience
• Contact my old history teacher (now coordinates student safe-grading and associates issues). I would love to do an Assembly or maybe a mentoring programme at my old school to help those facing exams using my own experiences. 
• Volunteer over Christmas time- or just generally. I really want to do something for the homeless but just anyone in need really.

These are all things I have wanted to do and now I have the time to do them. So thanks Boris for shaking my hand, having a chat and indirectly getting me to have some thinking time!

Next time you're in Bedford we should do Lunch haha!