What are you going to do when you leave school?

How many times have you heard that irritating question? More than enough I’d say.

When you hear it, does your mind go blank and do you reply with an inaudible grunt? or do you just make up complete and utter lies just to shut them up?

Most of us fellas in Year 13 have close to no clue what we’re going to do when we leave school in roughly half a year’s time, not long to go at all, and I know for Year 11’s and 12’s your struggling with the thought of deciding what to do after school too.

Well done to that maybe 5-10% of seniors who know exactly what you’re going to do and know exactly how you’re going to do it.

However most of us aren’t in that category.

And that’s okay. It’s okay not to know.

You know what lads, it’s quite normal to not know the answer to that question at our age and because you don’t know you should feel excited. Not knowing is exciting. That’s why we go on adventures and that’s why we take risks. Because we don’t know what the outcome is going to be.

Life is a winding path, not a straight road.

Now, I’m not here to tell you not to plan or think about what you’re going to do in future, and I’m definitely not saying to not get prepared for the future. I’m here to say, “don’t feel pressured or constrained but feel excited for what’s to come”.

This leads me to my next point.

What makes you happy? And when I say happy I mean beaming with a grin from one ear to the other, happy as in, you know you wouldn’t want to be doing anything else in that moment of time.

I love many things: I really love playing basketball, dribbling up and down the court, I’ve always loved getting up early on Saturday mornings to play my favourite sport of rugby for longer than I can remember, and most weeks I enjoy diving into a pool, a lake or the sea for the sheer hell of it. But there’s one thing that I do that trumps them all. Singing. I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember, for the last 12 years I have sung to myself to and from school every day. Much to the annoyance of my older brothers I’ve always sung virtually the whole time at home, I’ve had many deserving punches and a serious amount of verbal abuse.

I don’t sing in the choir so that it looks good on my CV and I didn’t audition for the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir to help me get a job, I do both of these things because I love singing and I want to do as much of it as I can, like the other 54 people in my choir. The result of this, is music that brings tears to people’s eyes.

Living your passion and sharing it with others Is like giving a gift.

So, what do you love doing more than anything else? 

Put hours and hours of practice into it. Give it 100%. Do it with other like-minded people who love it is much as you do. Be trained by coaches, developers, and teachers who are helping because they share your passion. Then not only will you experience joy, but you will spread that joy to others.

Think of rugby heads cheering on the sideline after an outstanding display of a perfectly executed set piece. Think of music lovers dancing wildly at their favourite band performing at a concert, or even think of being in class with the teacher who you just know has real passion for their subject.

Sharing your passion is just about the best there is. It’s what makes life good. For the giver, and the receiver.

I don’t know if singing is going to be part of my career….it might be, it might not, but I am going to always be singing for fun or as a hobby for as long as I am able.

My advice to you is find something that you love and somehow make it a part of your life so that you can make life good, not just for yourself but for others as well. Just fit it in somehow.

“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” —Oprah Winfrey

Cheers boys.