Earlier this year I was invited to attend interviews for a position by an international organization. When I got into the interview room, I appeared before a panel of three interviewers-two men and one woman. A gentleman sat in the middle of the two other interviewers. He seemed like the leader of the panel from that position and his initiation of the interview added to my assumption. Whether I was right or wrong, I still do not know, but he seemed like someone people in that environment looked up to. Further, what was interesting and inspiring was that he and his team were all young people. Scrolling through my LinkedIn feed two weeks ago, I got a real shocker. One of his colleagues had shared a post about his passing. I went through his profile and really he had so many achievements and an even brighter future. I found myself extremely touched as though I knew the person. It really beat me up on how life can be so fragile, how he had almost made it to the year end and how far he had to go with his career. Apparently, he also left behind a little child and a widow. You can only imagine how devastating this may have been for his family.
I have this philosophy that, “I do not care who is having it worse, because my pain is valid too”, but its only logical to have exceptions when you encounter such situations. Such situations call for deep reflection. There are people, so many, better than us, more accomplished than us, more deserving of life than us, who have not seen this day and here we are, fortunate enough to see a new day and potentially a new year. I must mention that there is absolutely nothing special about us being able to see a new year, time and chance happens to us all. This reminds me of a line from one of my favorite books, the Art of War by Sun Tzu. He says, “to see the sun and moon is no sign of sharp sight”. I will leave this to your own interpretation.
I do then believe that there is always something to be grateful for and in this instance, life. You may have had a terrible year, but the gift of life is a great opportunity for you to turn things around. Every new day you exist is a chance to do better and become better. Being alive is essentially a stream of possibilities where anything can happen. The process of living accords you a chance to be in control of multiple aspects of your life through decision making- that is a gift.
With the time that we are allowed on this earth, it is crucial that we make the most of it. We need to treat the people next to us with more kindness, love and compassion, we need to care less about what people will think when we want to pursue happiness and we need to take it easy on ourselves- whatever we are doing within our present capacity is always enough. You did the very best that you could in this year. If you do not think so, it is time for you to make adjustments that will render you improvement in the coming year. Learn to appreciate yourself and limit comparisons with others. Each one of us has a race to run and therefore we should always focus on our own. Never be intimidated by those who do great, learn from them. Never think lowly of yourself because others attained your dream earlier than you, but be encouraged that anything is possible. We live in a time of social media where we all share the best parts of our lives and this may affect others negatively. It is then important for people to better manage how they deal with the content they see with limiting comparisons being a priority.
I am rooting for everyone’s happiness and I am praying all your pursuits are a success in 2023. I pray that you get the job you are looking for, I pray you meet a partner who will value you and add to your growth and happiness, I pray you have good health and I pray you find your purpose if you haven’t. There is definitely a reason you are here today and I do pray that you make the most of it. I want to wish you all a prosperous 2023. May the good Lord see us all throughout the new year. Stay Grateful!
LET AQUILA SPEAK 