Follow your dream, have passion and find a mentor

My advice to the youth of Bermuda is to follow their dreams and chase a passion instead of a pay cheque. 

When we are passionate about what we do, we do it ten times better than the person who is not. 

Passionate individuals are truly driven and motivated to achieve their goals. If you are struggling to identify what your passion is, I invite you to ask yourself what it is that you like to do in your free time? 

Who are some of your heroes in life? What are you naturally skilled at? What subject areas and classes did you enjoy while growing up? What types of people do you prefer to be around? 

The answers you provide to these questions will sharpen your focus on what you are truly passionate about.

When I was 16, I returned home, having graduated high school already; and at that age there was nothing mandated for me to do since I was not in school, and so I had to find something to do with my days that was productive and that would benefit me in the long run. 

I decided that every day I would audit some cases in the courts. I found myself in Magistrates’ Court from 9.30 to 4.30 almost every day just watching, learning, and taking in every iota of knowledge I could. 

I’d just sit there in Plea Court watching the lawyers. I was able to witness everything about their presentation and it truly was a lesson in advocacy for me.

When I wake up in the morning I am hungry, and I don’t mean hungry for waffles, or a breakfast sandwich. 

Well, I suppose I am hungry for that as well, but what I mean is that I wake with a hunger and a desire to get to work; I’m excited and ready for what the day ahead of me holds. 

I ask myself “What can I achieve today; how can I be better today than I was yesterday and what can I do today to prepare for a better tomorrow?”

Sacrifice

Success doesn’t even come before sacrifice in the dictionary and it certainly doesn’t happen in life. As young people we must sacrifice now in order to succeed later. There are some nights and weekends that I find myself in my room for hours just reading, studying, and preparing something to present to my boss. 

Not always because it’s mandated, but because I have a passion for this, a deep desire for the law and the pursuit of justice. 

For you it may be teaching, journalism, or even mechanics. Whatever it may be, do it to the best of your ability. 

When you find what it is that you want to do, seek out a mentor in that field and learn everything you can from them. 

It was once said “When a young person, even a gifted one, grows up without proximate living examples of what they may aspire to become — whether lawyer, scientist, or leader in any realm —  their goal remains abstract. 

Such models as appear in books or on the news, however inspiring or revered, are ultimately too remote to be real, let alone influential. 

But a role model in the flesh provides more than inspiration; his or her very existence is confirmation of possibilities one may have every reason to doubt, saying, ‘Yes, someone like me can do this’.

We all have mentors, and heroes. I consider myself blessed because I actually get to work with, spend time with, talk with and laugh with mine.

I enjoy advocacy and the intense cut and thrust that I have come to learn is an inevitable part of such a profession. 

I encourage you to find your passion, chase your dreams, and do what it is that you love to do. For when you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.