one of my greatest fears and one that
I’m sure is very common amongst many of
you is the fear of the unknown we all
know what it’s like to be in a
transitional phase when we’re getting
ready to say goodbye to one stage of our
lives and move forward to something new
whether it be moving to a new house or
city letting go of old relationships and
starting new ones maybe looking for a
new job or in my case graduating we’re
left to embark on a new journey with no
guarantee of the outcome now I don’t
know if this becomes easier over time
but what I do know is that as a teenager
about to leave the structured and
nurturing environment of a high school
and dive headfirst into the real world
it’s overwhelming and terrifying to say
the least
so I want to warn you when we’re
adjusting to big transitions that is
moving from one thing to the next it’s
easy to become so focused on where we’re
going that we forget about where we are
currently and I’m afraid that when we
let ourselves fall into this habit we
start to lose ourselves in the middle of
it all what if is such an easy question
to ask what if we make a mistake what if
we make the wrong decision what if we
don’t succeed after thinking so much
about next year I’ve been programmed to
consider what I’m going to do or who I’m
going to be it may be what we does it do
is take a step back from the constant
what-ifs and what next and focus on what
now allow me to give you an example last
year during my piano class at school we
had an end-of-semester recital as part
of our culminating activity this was
supposed to be the most beautiful
artistic impressive and challenging
performance of all
Tasya was nervous is an understatement
and to give you a spoiler of how this
ends I was not satisfied with my
performance that day the only thing I
can tell you about it is that I sat down
on the bench in front of the piano felt
my fingers shake and the next thing I
knew I took about and walked back to my
seat I have absolutely no other
recollection of playing that piece
except for the fact that it felt like I
wasn’t even playing I was so nervous
about the outcome if I would mess up
what everyone would think of me that I
forgot I was performing a piece that I
loved and something I never thought I
was capable of playing I may have been
the one pressing the keys but I was not
in control of my performance that’s what
we all want isn’t it to be in control of
our lives our choices and the way other
people perceive us especially as
rebellious angsty teenagers having the
option to make all of our decisions
ourselves seems more than appealing but
what we may not realize is that we don’t
have a choice no one is going to tell us
how to act think or feel or whole lives
we are the only things with the power to
change and we are the only ones with the
power to do it so in trying to find our
way how do we make sure that we don’t
get lost in the crazy exciting
overwhelming and constantly changing
world around us well the answer is
simple we can’t but what we can do is
make our futures seem a little less
intimidating by changing our perspective
of the present moment the first step is
to become aware of what we are really
doing now I don’t mean what we’re doing
is in I’m doing math homework or I’m
playing piano but what we are really
doing so in order to do this we have to
be prepared to confront the things that
we may not want to admit so let’s say
there was an option to go on an overseas
trip maybe audition for a talent show
or try out for a team something that you
really wanted to do but your parents
said no how many of you may complain to
your friends that your parents are
holding you back now let’s say there was
a trip audition or tryout that you never
really wanted to do in the first place
how many of you may use your parents as
an excuse as to why you can’t do it none
of us want barriers to prevent us from
achieving our goals right right until we
can use those barriers as an excuse to
help us get out of something that we’re
scared of what we are really doing is
letting the external aspects of our
lives the power to control our decisions
what do I mean by external aspects well
in this case it could be your fears or
your parents but it could also be a
university a college or career path no
matter what it is if we let the things
that we can’t control limit us we are
allowing those things to dictate our
success rather than what we are capable
of and what we are able to do the second
component of being aware is realizing
what we actually are able to do so this
year I’ve been so determined to get a
specific grade average to meet my goals
for post-secondary and I have put so
much pressure on myself that I end up
breaking down every time I don’t get a
question on a math test
and let me tell you it’s exhausting and
extremely unhealthy I don’t have the
power to automatically raise my math
mark by 10 percent but what I can do is
work hard and work on moving up and in
the right direction with each chance I
get
it’s these short-term goals that will
make our long-term plans actually seem
achievable the third thing is that in
the midst of all this we have to stay
appreciative even if we think there’s no
reason to because there’s always a
reason I learned to appreciate pain or
in other words our personal achievements
that our initiate
now last year during a community run in
fitness class I remember running around
the block
panting and thinking about how badly I
wanted the whole experience to end but
somewhere in my run my perspective
changed now I don’t know if this change
occurred because I was closer to being
finished but either way I stopped
thinking about how much pain I was in
and instead I focused on the weather I
felt the wind in my hair and the Sun of
my arms and I realized that it was a
beautiful day and instead of doing
something much worse I was just running
I was lucky to be running instead of
thinking to myself I can’t wait until
this is over I began to think I am so
proud of myself for carrying on we may
not want to do what it takes to reach
our goals in the moment but when we do
we’re taking the steps to achieve
something that we can be proud of
so take pride in the process because
that is what makes it all seem worth it
now I think of it this way life is like
that community run when we’re too
focused on where we want to go it’s easy
to forget where we are but when we put
our best foot forward with every step
we’ll find ourselves exactly where we
need to be in retrospect if I had sat
down on the bench in front of the piano
on the day of my recital and I had
realized that I was letting my nerves
control my success or if I had
acknowledged the fact that my
performance didn’t have to be flawless
to be amazing or if I had appreciated
that I was sharing something that I
loved with a bunch of people who loved
music as much as I do
maybe I would have actually remembered
it today maybe it would have been
something that I could be proud of so I
want to challenge you to think of your
life as moments when things get
overwhelming and remember that even
though we don’t have the power to
control what happens to us we can
control how we look at this moment
choose to realize the value of this
moment and put
everything you have into right now
because when you learn to seize the
present you can finally begin to look
forward to the future
thank you [Applause]
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