A few months ago someone said to me “none of us get out of life alive”. At first I didn't think much of this statement as clearly it just states the obvious, at some point the timer runs out and well… all of us die. However, the more I thought about this statement the quicker I realised there was a lot more to it. We spend so many hours of our lives worrying and overthinking about things that have gone wrong or the what if's of life, reducing the amount of time that we should be spending actually living and soaking up the goodness of life. I’ll say it again, none of us get out of life alive, so start living up to what life has to offer.

Over the summer holidays, I gave up my phone and family for 3 weeks in a little place called Anakiwa at the tippy top of the South Island. I went on a course called Outward Bound that taught me the value of failure and resilience, of not getting things right, and picking myself back up when things go wrong.

Here at Queen’s often we strive to be the absolute best, aiming to be at the top of our academic classes, in the best sports teams, and a calendar full of extra curriculars - this strive for success is a good thing but only to a certain degree. Our idealisation of perfection often means we tend to not put ourselves out there and try new things in fear of falling or making a fool of ourselves. We are so scared of judgement from our family, friends and peers that it appears that it is better to not do something than to be seen failing at it. However, if you haven't been told already it's just about impossible to grow without making mistakes and “failing”.

Whilst at Outward Bound, my perspective on failure was reframed, the only way you can fail in life is if you give up, otherwise you've just found another way that didn't work for you. With every way that you discover doesn't work, you inch closer to success as you are equipped with more knowledge, experience and resources.

I discovered this whilst sitting at the top of a water rapid that had a 3m drop at the bottom of it, as my fellow teammates went down before me almost each one of them aced the drop with perfection, as my turn crept around my fear began to increase, not just my fear of the rapid but my fear of failure, all I could see was a high possibility of flipping in my kayak and failing in front of my teammates - my mind was holding me back. However, I soon realised that the main challenge of overcoming this rapid wasn't the rapid itself but was more overcoming the mental barrier in my head. As soon as I didn’t view flipping over as a failure, I feared the rapid a lot less, the very worst that could happen was that my ego became a bit battered after emerging from the water like a gasping fish. As soon as I took on the rapid fear free, I found myself acing the drop with perfection just like my teammates, however, if I had let my mind become engulfed in this fear I probably would have most likely ended up in the gasping fish scenario.

If you constantly stay in that safe little bubble known as your comfort zone you will never discover your true capability in life, as cringe as it sounds it's actually quite true. As some of you may know already one of my goals this year was to push myself outside my comfort zone, I've found myself joining the school cricket team despite having a hatred of cricket prior, I've joined the school musical and school choir, the list goes on all with no prior experience. And yes I may not be that good at singing, especially on stage in a school musical, however, I would rather gain new experiences in life than sit back and regret all of the things I never gave a go at some point in my life.

If you have the chance to take up new opportunities, take them, every single day I’m hit with a wave of regret based on the fact that I did not take up the opportunity to throw a bunch of wet corn across Mr Clark’s classroom. Being bold enough to commit to something new and learn from your mistakes is a success within itself. We cannot become who we need to be, by remaining who we are.

Now, I don't quite have a Michelle Obama quote to finish with, however, I’m going to leave you all with the deadly accurate quote that we’ve been throwing around since we were all about 12 years old, #YOLO, you only live once.