The best 30 seconds of your life. Go.

By NATALIA HAWK

Welcome to my New Most Favourite Game.

It’s super easy. And anyone can play.

It’s called “The Best 30 Seconds Of Your Life” and it’s where you come and share just that – the best 30 seconds of your life.

It’s a concept that originally appeared here on XO Jane; author Zoe Eisenberg introduced the game, saying that it was brought it up in a Google Hang meeting:

My boss asked everyone to share the “best 30 seconds of their life.” The 30 seconds that, if you were about to die and had the chance, you would be able to re-live.

She immediately thought of all the different possibilities – holidays, spending time with family – and eventually chose a moment while camping with friends in Connecticut:

One early morning around 3 or 4 am, I had a minute or two of exhilarating clarity. You know, the kind that often come when you haven’t bathed, slept or showered in days. The cool air on my skin and the people around me made me feel more alive than I had ever felt. I had nowhere to be, nothing I needed to do, and I just felt deliriously present. That’s exactly how I would want to feel if I knew I would never feel anything again.

The reason I love this game is because it sends you on such a trip down memory lane, thinking of all the amazing moments that life has thrown at you at some point or another.

I have a million moments I’d like to relive. Some that are quite dull and some that are really exciting. Parasailing over a bay in Nusa Dua, Bali. Reading a book and lying on a beach hammock in Tulum, Mexico. Endless dinners with my most-loved ones. Sitting in front of the TV, cuddled up with my grandma.

But I had to pick just one 30 seconds, and here is mine.

In February this year, I went on a girl’s trip up to Cairns with three of my best girlfriends. It was five days of swimming, eating delicious food, reading and dancing. Everything one could possibly hope for in a tropical holiday.

One night, we got all dressed up to go to a Greek restaurant in town. We were sitting there, chatting away, eating our dinner, when the lights in the restaurant dimmed and the owner plugged his iPod in and started blasting Zorba’s dance.

Everyone kind of laughed awkwardly and looked around at each other, but didn’t stand up. And so the owner came to each table and grabbed us by our hands and made us get up. He blasted the music louder and so we had to put our arms around our fellow diners and start dancing in a circle around the restaurant, dodging tables and chairs.

And then the owner started throwing plates. Smashing them on the floor with gay abandon. And my girlfriends and I were laughing harder than we’d ever laughed, attempting to dodge smashed plates on the ground while we danced around the restaurant with a huge group of complete strangers.

Life can be hard and life can be unfair and life can be stressful and panicky and generally quite unenjoyable. But for 30 of those Zorba-dancing seconds, it was absolutely perfect.

And I’d love to relive it.

To give you further inspiration for your own 30 seconds, here are some other favourite moments of MM staffers.

Nicky’s:

Nicky

You wouldn’t think that stains, goggles and a heaving crowd would be the best 30 seconds of one’s life but I’ve never had more fun than when I attended the tomato throwing festival in Spain.

If you haven’t been before, thousands of people cram into the tiny Valencian town of Buñol to hurl tomatoes at one another. It sounds awful but it is hilarious.

There was one point where my friends and I were pinned against the wall in a cobbled laneway from the heaving crowd, complete strangers squishing tomatoes into our goggled faces and I remember pausing, my face hurting from smiling and laughing so much, just wanting to be in this moment forever.

Rosie’s:

Rosie

If any of you have seen the cinematic masterpice that is Sister Act 2, then you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say that ‘The Greatest Medly Ever Told’ performed by Whoopi Goldberg in the opening scene is one of the best musical numbers of all time.

The best 30 seconds of my life so far was when I performed that musical number. Everything just came together so perfectly and it ended up being a ridiculous spectacle of comedic brilliance. Best. Time. Of. My. Life.

So. Best 30 seconds of your life. Go.