The Last Word

By Walter Savage | Posted: Tuesday October 20, 2020

Life Sucks

Or at least right now for us high school students it does.

We have exams, parents, rules. We are trapped in a box and can’t escape, or at least it feels like that. Intermediate was a breeze, no exams, status didn’t matter, we never had to deal with real life decisions. We had parents to make those decisions. If High School sucks surely life after School will be better. We will have the freedom to do what we want, when we want, with who we want, without Mum or Dad nagging in our ear. It will be great. Maybe we will have a job, and money. Ooh money, maybe we can afford to buy a PS5 or a house?

That sounds all too familiar to me. I think at our current stage in life we are either constantly living in the past or always looking into the future instead of looking at what is right in front of us. As we see it right now is always the worst time. At intermediate we looked back and reminisced about primary school and how innocent we were. We looked forward to high school because we would be bigger, and older, and have a car and more independence. All instead of looking at what was in front of us and taking it one day at a time.

I think as a whole we need to quit caring about how ‘good’ the future will be or how incredible the past was. Yes the past was probably amazing but it's in the past. Remember it, but sometimes we need to let it go. The future is unknown, and that’s what makes it exciting. We don't know what is going to happen so we have to quit worrying about it. What happens, happens, control the controllables.

Part of living in the present is taking advantage of the opportunities that are set in front of us. What is an opportunity? So often people come up here and preach about opportunity without actually telling us what one is. Real opportunities are the ones we don’t initially see, they come at the most unexpected, inopportune times. We often miss these. Why? Why? Because we are so wound up in our own opinions and distractions, that we forget and miss a majority of the opportunities that fall into our hands.

When we do see opportunity we treat it like the inappropriate sales people that turn up to your doorstep at the most inconvenient of times - with disdain and a bad attitude. Let's change this , let's look at things with an open mind, let's live in the present and forget about the uncontrollables and focus on what we can control, like the opportunity that has fallen in your lap.

I’ve had my fair share of opportunities, one of these being the speech I’m giving today. What opportunities have you been presented with and how many times have you said no? I bet it’s more times than you’ve said yes.

So if anything is to be taken away today it is that the future is unknown, the past is in the past, and the present is now. Live in the present and take it one day at a time. Make the most of opportunities that are placed in front of you and don’t let them slip by. Staying true to tradition a quote to end on from the ‘Boss’ Rick Ross;

“Forget yesterday, live for today. Tomorrow will take care of itself.”