Gratitude in the Face of Adversity Education

[Applause]

i

grew up in a beautiful country known as

sri lanka

the island is just absolutely

breathtaking

just picture those perfect sparkling

beaches and lush green forest and you

have sri lanka unfortunately when i was

growing up the beauty of the land was

often overshadowed

by a civil war one day when i was about

five years old

i was getting ready to rush to school

like any other day i’m not gonna lie i

was always that kid that was late to

school so rushing was quite the normal

my mom dropped me off at preschool and

then headed off to work

sounds like a pretty regular mundane day

right

well it was definitely not mundane to

say the least

my name is navindi da silva and i almost

died when i was five years old

a little bit about me is that i

currently attend the university of

british columbia and the faculty of

sciences

i’m a first year student in the future i

hope to pursue medicine

because i’m just an absolute nerd for

biology if i’m being completely honest

today i will be presenting a topic which

i have named gratitude in the face of

adversity

i will be correlating aspects of

gratitude to this year’s theme

education so when you first hear the

phrase

gratitude in the face of adversity what

do you think of what’s the first thing

that just

pops into your mind this is the point of

my presentation where i would have asked

you to speak up and engage with me but

given current circumstances this is not

possible

so instead i have prepared a few phrases

and words that come to my mind

personally i think of overcoming

obstacles

making lemonade out of lemons never

ending conflict

persistence maintaining a positive

mindset

delight at the end of the tunnel

appreciating life

and resilience i’m sure a lot of you

have your own

wonderful ideas about the phrase as well

during my talk i will be touching on

many of the phrases and words that you

see on the slide right now

and talking you through how they

correlate to education

so now back to that memory of mine where

my mother dropped me off at preschool

before heading off to work

let me tell you about how i almost died

that day

that day my life was threatened by a

bomb

a bomb was dropped off at a bank very

close to my

preschool that day many lives were lost

and

families were shattered i left preschool

that day with really no idea about what

was going on

my friends and i children of 45 years we

were traumatized

i didn’t even have real recollection of

what occurred that day

until last year when a similar event

took place once again and took the lives

of many

as i grew older i realized how unusual

it was to be in a situation like this

i mean when i moved to canada in 2012

and told to my friends

let’s just say they were just a tad

surprised oh i’m just joking they were

very shocked

as you just witnessed i need to make

light of these dark moments to keep

moving forward with my life

as i was saying i realized how abnormal

it was to be in a situation

like this i mean how many of you could

tell me that you have

this is the point of my presentation

where i would have asked you to raise

your hand if you’ve been in a similar

situation

but well 2020 really didn’t pan out the

way it was supposed to did it

so here i am presenting to a pretty much

empty room

at least it definitely helps with my

nerves that’s very good

unfortunately situations like this were

quite common in many

developing countries and in sri lanka at

that time as i was

saying earlier there was an ongoing war

and well

situations like this were quite frequent

in fact

my mother had a similar experience to me

except she did sustain some serious

injuries because the roof

quite literally collapsed around her at

work the truth is

situations like this are very common in

many developing countries

so common that most citizens of

developing countries could say that

they’ve faced any other experience or at

least

know of someone that has

growing up i remember seeing horrible

situations happen to people every single

day on the news channel

and this is all due to an economic

struggle in these developing countries

and this struggle this economic

situation and these

horrible circumstances that stemmed off

of it is why my parents decided to

immigrate to canada in the first place

my parents they lived a comfortable life

in sri lanka they had good jobs that

they really loved to do they never

struggled to put food on the table

we had a beautiful home but they decided

to leave that

and sacrificed all of that for my

brother and i they moved to an

english-speaking country when they could

barely speak english themselves

to give my brother and i a better chance

at life

as i walk the crisp clean streets of

canada i

was quite honestly in shock there were

just so many opportunities here so many

ways for me

to get involved and take initiative i

could follow my passions and strive for

my aspirations

really i mean how amazing is it that i’m

here right now connecting with all of

you virtually

talking to you about my personal

experiences you’re listening to someone

that you haven’t even met before

how incredible is that when i moved to

canada i wanted to make the most of the

opportunities i was fortunate to have

for two reasons

number one my parents had left a

comfortable life to give me the chance

to live a more successful fulfilling

life

and number two i have access to a

plethora of various types of

opportunities in canada

and so every single day i work so hard

and make a genuine effort to be involved

in my school and local communities

because i recognize that i’m fortunate

to be in a position to help others

and now this brings me to the education

system

the education system can definitely be

better there’s no doubt about that

you know in my first semester of uni i

had so many existential crisises

and meltdowns because i felt like my

high school experience didn’t prepare me

whatsoever for what was to come in

post-secondary

i mean it’s not like it could have with

covet and all

however in my first semester of

university i realized

many things because it was my hardest

year

and so i would like to share these

things with you i’ve prepared

three questions that i would really like

you to just think deeply about and

consider

and think about how you can apply it to

your life

so the first question is isn’t there

room for improvement when it comes to

everything in life

now really think about that question

have you ever found something that was

so

flawless and now that brings me to my

second question

is there anything in life that is

considered perfect and permanent in its

perfection

really think about that question even if

you found something

that was perfect was it permanent in

that perfection

and my final question is should we even

be striving for perfection in the first

place

in our society we are pushed to be these

perfect individuals

but is that actually good for us if

there isn’t room for improvement

you’re not adapting and if you think

that something is perfect

you’re being blinded because well

nothing is

and if you’re striving for perfection

you’re neglecting what should matter

most to you

your happiness and so the education

system can prove as well

because every single day as society

changes

the education system must change and

adapt and improve to prepare

youth for the real world nothing is

perfect

after all although i felt unprepared for

my first semester in university

my high school experience prepared me

for something so much greater

it prepared me for society and i’m

beyond grateful

for that now i would really like to just

emphasize

self-motivation because that’s really

the key when it comes to the education

system your goals whether they are a

career goal a family goal or any goal to

be honest

success isn’t simply going to fall into

your lap because life does not work that

way

i really wish it did because that would

have been nice but it doesn’t

you need to put in the effort to achieve

your dreams and school

teaches you that you do the assignments

you work hard and you will receive a

deserving grade

even the most perfect school system will

definitely 100

fail you until you realize that effort

is required to achieve your dreams

until you realize that you need to make

your dreams happen

school system is merely an unused tool

these days it’s simply too easy to blame

the school system

and the day that you’ve realized that

you need to make your dreams happen

is also the day that you realize that

you’re fortunate because that’s when

that’s when you take advantage of

everything that you were fortunate to

have

including the right to learn in the

first place

until then the school system the

education system that

has been built with so much hard work

will really hold no purpose for you

all i hope is that you leave today

recognizing

how fortunate you are and appreciating

everything you have

you are lucky to be here right now

you’re lucky to have lived this long

you’re lucky to have human rights you’re

lucky to have the opportunity to learn

i know it may seem like life is

difficult because well

life is very difficult for all of us

every single one of us has hidden dark

demons that keep us up at night

wondering if life is even worth living

for

i just hope that you find the strength

to overcome the

obstacles and the curveballs the life

throws at you

by remembering how fortunate you are and

being appreciative of everything that

you have

there are really just too many people in

this world

where their greatest aspiration is to

simply survive

through the day you are fortunate to be

able to aspire

for something more than just surviving

to conclude my presentation i would like

to leave you with a quote by yasmin

shayan

it’s okay to be having a hard time while

also feeling thankful

for your blessings make space for both

by honoring that both can be true

thank you for joining me today

you