Sometime last October I was asked to speak at Youth ’09 event about RA. The talk was in mid Jan, and I had to turn it down because of my trip.
Two nights ago I got a call from a relative asking me if I was interested in speaking to a group of approximately 13 eighteen year-old’s who recently graduated from high school.High achievers from every state in the country, all gathered for a two week camp.
There were 50 of them, and four speakers. The group will be split into four and the following day, each group will present to everyone else what they discussed about with the speaker that was allocated to them. The angle of the talk were that all four speakers have done or were doing things that did not thread within the norm, or something that is not related to their tertiary training.
Little did I know I’d be up till 4am, editing the video for Corntoz Pillow Fight, and had to be up at 7.30 to get ready for the talk in KL. Nobody noted my lack of appearance except the three speakers who said they wished they could go to work in jeans, as I did.
I think I poorly structured my session and it lacked specific direction. I went from telling them a good heart is better than a good brain, to what is good over there does not make it bad here as there’s always two sides of the coin. Then from you are no better than a person who is less capable, to if you are in the position to do good, do it and don’t cop out.
At the end I emphasised a few things.
- Always note value, and not price (Wilde).
- Be the change you want to see in the world, not talk about it (Ghandi).
- Don’t underestimate the power of God, the wisdom of your parents and the importance of knowledge (HD).
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*Thank you Shafiq & Ayaz for the invitation, Suheilmy and colleagues for your assistance, and to all the participants.