TIPS FOR LIFE

Students gathered for the Speech Day and Prize Giving Ceremony at Harrison College this week, were given five key tips to adhere to, to ensure that they can live meaningful and fulfilled lives, well into their senior years.

The key advice came from featured speaker Alan Emtage, who him himself attended the school in his younger days. Sharing from his own experiences in life, Emtage told the youth that if they adhered to the advice, they would find it useful, as they progressed through life.
He first encouraged the students to explore and travel the world, when they have the resources and opportunity to do so.

“There is nothing in the world that will expand your mind, like travel” he advised.

He also encouraged them to learn another language, since it will allow then to explore other cultures and open doors for them, that they would otherwise not have access to.

Emtage also recommended that the youth seek to learn more about their ancestry, by speaking and engaging their elders. He encouraged them to take photographs and audio clips of their engagement with their elders, who will be gone when they grow older and who will therefore not be around to answer the key questions they may have about themselves or their family, later on in life.

“Talk to the old people. This is something that is near and dear to my heart, because later on in life, I have developed an interest in ancestry and genealogy and one of my true regrets in life, is not having talked to the old people when I was young. They knew all the stories (but) those people are gone” he remarked.

He added, “The old people might be your parents. If you grandparents are around, if friends of the family are around, take the opportunity and talk to them about their lives. Take the opportunity and talk to them about your family. You will be amazed at what you learn from this”.
His next set of advice, delivered with a bit of humour, was to “put things back where they belong”. This single piece of advice he said, will save persons a great deal of anxiety and frustration, if they simply follow this rule, as they go through life.

Emtage, in giving tip number five, pointed out that young persons must learn in this culture that promotes materialism and celebrity status, that “money is not everything”. Whilst encouraging the students to find a job that interests them and to be flexible in their career choices, Emtage however stressed that their emphasis should not be on acquiring cars and houses and other material possessions.

“Nobody at your funeral is going to care about what your car was or how big your house was. They are going to care about who you were as a person” he commented.

Before leaving the stage, Emtage gave one final piece of advice outside of his five key nuggets and that was, that students should spend some time volunteering their time to serve others, since they will find it most rewarding. (RSM)