Life is Not a Race
In Assembly, Sophie, Year 10, spoke about taking time to find your path and our choice to become someone who can make a positive difference.
My name is Sophie, and I have a little brother who recently turned eight. A little while ago I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said he wanted to be a suitcase. He could have said a fireman or a police officer or pretty much anything else but no, he wanted to be a suitcase. When I asked him why, he simply said it was so he could travel with his mum on her work trips. In his mind, being a suitcase meant he could always be with her, wherever she went in the world.
My brother wasn’t worried about picking the ‘right’ career or making the ‘smart’ choice, he just said what came to mind, and that’s something we stop doing as we get older. As we go through our schooling years, especially when picking electives in Year 8 and picking our HSC subjects in Year 10, we are constantly asked what we want to do when we leave School. We start to worry about what our friends might think of us, the opinions of others, and feel pressure to pick something that sounds good or makes sense to other people, even if it doesn’t really feel right for us.
Now, I’m not saying that you should want to be a suitcase, I just mean it’s okay to not know. You should want to be what you want to be without anyone else’s judgement impacting your decision. It is so important to be around people who support your genuine interests rather than those who push you towards what they deem more ‘practical’ or ‘financially rewarding’. At the end of the day, we are still trying to figure out who we are as people, let alone what we are going to be doing 10 years from now.
As Master Oogway from Kung Fu Panda says, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.” Deciding what you want to do when you leave School is a massive decision, especially when you’re as young as 15. So, maybe instead of stressing about having your entire future planned out, focus on who it is that you are surrounding yourself with today.
I think we underestimate just how much the people in our lives influence us. The people you surround yourself with can shape how you are as a person. If you spend your time with people who are kind and supportive, you are more likely to adopt those qualities yourself. It is easy to overlook but if you’ve ever spent a day with an enthusiastic and positive person, you know just how contagious that can be. Their positivity rubs off on you, pushing you to do better, aim higher and see the brighter side of life.
Just as others have the power to lift you up, you have the power to lift others up. Every day when you wake up, you have the choice to be kind. I urge you to make this choice. Your peers aren’t going to remember whether you received 100% or 60% in your most recent maths test, instead, they will remember how you were as a person.
Think about a time when you were having a really bad day and someone just gave you a hug or asked if you were okay, remember how much this meant to you in that moment. You never know how someone else’s day has played out – what went well, what went wrong – and an act of kindness, no matter how small, costs you nothing but could mean the world to someone.
As we go through School and beyond, let’s not just focus on what we are going to do in the future – whether we will become doctors, interior designers or something else entirely. Let’s also think about who we are becoming as people and how we can make a difference in the lives of those around us. After all, the people we surround ourselves with can shape the way we see the world, and in turn, we can shape the world by how we treat the people in it.
Take your time finding your path. Remember, life is not a race. Surround yourself with good people and be that good person someone else can rely on. It is still okay to dream about your future career – even if for some reason you want to be a suitcase – but what’s more important is growing up to be kind. In the end, that’s what people will remember about you.