Is success a necessity
[Music]
in
elementary middle school a common
question that we’re all asked at some
point
is at one po at some point at some point
is what do you want to be
when you grow up and as a kid we
sometimes give very bizarre
answers like i at that age want to be
the red power ranger when i grew up
and to this day i still secretly do i’m
hoping it works out
however for the most part being
unburdened by adulthood and stress
kids answer the question what they’re
truly passionate it could range from
lawyer
to athlete to artists the sky is the
limit
however if you ask the question to the
same kid years later when he or she is
in high school
you’ll notice the answers change the
professions they want to be now aren’t
the same ones they wanted to be when
they were a kid
now it’s doctors stockbroker engineer
overall
high earning renowned successful career
professions
and this transformation we take from
elementary school
to high school begs the question
why do we feel the need to partake in
careers that we’re not interested in
and what was wrong with our original
career choices
why is being successful more important
than pursuing your dreams
my name is rahul guhan and we’ll explore
that together today
when i was a kid i want to be an
elementary school teacher when i grew up
i just thought it was one of the most
meaningful things anyone can be
and i specifically wanted to be an
elementary school teacher
because i’d be able to teach kids and as
i said before kids see the world in a
very positive light they see it for what
it could be
so i want to teach those type of kids
so whenever anyone asked me that
question i would say i would want to be
an elementary school teacher
and when adults ask you this question
when you’re young they just accept any
answer you give because they don’t
expect any serious thing from you since
you’re a kid
however throughout the years i noticed
that my answer was accepted
less and less people’s faces would be
disappointed like i had the wrong answer
to the question
yes the wrong answer for what i wanted
to
do in my life i didn’t know there was a
wrong answer that age
they had a stigma associated with the
profession i chose and what they
expected me to say was like i said
doctor stockbroker engineer
and this continuous and continuous
disapproval and my answer made me feel
like i was going the wrong path with my
life and there’s one fixed path i had to
follow
like everyone else did
and that’s exactly what i did i ditched
the teacher dream and i tried to throw
myself at a profession that was remotely
successful
i took a bunch of computer science
classes with the hope maybe i’ll become
a programmer even though i know i do not
like coding
i took a bunch of science classes with
the hope and maybe one day i’ll become a
doctor even though
i know i hate i do not want to be doctor
i hate blood and everything that comes
with it
overall i was trying to be something
that i clearly wasn’t
and these two three years was a very
hard and dark time in my life because
every day i woke up feeling like i
didn’t have control over the life i was
living i felt as if i was living my life
for somebody else day after day and
the toll it has on you is that it makes
you just go through the actions every
day makes you more tempered than usual
makes you demotivated and the parts of
you that were special start showing less
and less
before all of this i used to be the most
positive and happiest guy there was i
was the funniest guy in the classroom
i was the guy with the biggest smile on
his face
but now i just stay in my room most of
the time i would not smile as much
and i would just be angry with anyone i
talked to
and this lack of control in my decisions
carried over to extracurriculars in high
school too
i felt i had to join the clubs like
speech and debate and key club that
would look good my college resume
despite me having no interest in them
whatsoever
but one day i had an idea ever since i
was in second grade i’ve been learning
and performing bollywood dance
it’s a big part of who i am as a person
and something i thoroughly enjoy
so i thought why not why not start a
bollywood dance club at carroll high
it will give some much-needed diversity
into the school campus and it’s a big
part of who i am
and it would allow me to do something i
actually finally enjoy
i knew off the bat it wouldn’t be easy
to create this club and take it to the
level of speech and debating key club
not because you’re only starting a club
from scratch but because of the
stereotypes that surrounded the club
i started the club in 2017 so my
sophomore year of high school
and at that time carol wasn’t very
diverse so because of that students
weren’t very welcoming to a club like
this
every friday from 3 45 to 4 30 our club
would practice in the cafeteria
and every friday during that time people
would mock us take videos of us to send
to their friends
and just ridicule us and i would have to
start practice only after everyone left
so the members i did have
would feel secure and every year we went
to club fairs to get more
people to join the club and every year
people would come up to our club booth
and
mock us in front of us mimikar dancing
and they would write
fake names on the attendance sheet or
their friends names this sort of
punishment
and for the first two years of the club
we only had six to eight people to join
not because of a lack of interest but
because people thought they’d be
immediately deemed as not cool if they
joined
overall the point i’m trying to make
here is that the club was put in a very
tough spot to succeed
at at any point i could have said the
logical point of action is to leave the
club
and go to something that my efforts
won’t be wasted and i know would look
good on my college resume
but despite all the challenges and all
the obstacles the club had i couldn’t
bring myself to leave it because
it finally let me feel like myself again
that confident funny positive person
came back every friday
from 3 45 to 4 30 and even if it was for
a little bit i loved feeling like my old
self again
there’s not a greater feeling than that
that bollywood dance club was the first
step of the life that i’m supposed to
live
and the first step into the life that i
want for myself
and i’m continuing to take that first
step to this very day
i hope everyone in this room also takes
that first step too
it’s incredibly hard but there’s nothing
more worthwhile and satisfying
than doing what brings you joy live the
life you love
thank you
you