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