The question about who we are
By Bill Fox/Columnist
Did you ever, in your youth, ask the question, “Who am I?”
What if someone were to ask you that today? How would you answer? My guess is that you might first say what you do and then tell a little about yourself.
For someone, it might go something like this: “I am a laid off GM worker, a mom, and a wife. I am also a cook, a hockey coach, an Anglican, a Liberal and a graduate of G. L. Roberts high school.”
But who are you really? William Shakespeare once said, “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
When we were children, we all had dreams and visualized ourselves in wonderful situations. What happened to those dreams? Was it that we became discouraged by others or hindered by past disappointments and pain?
So, who or what would you like to be? Some young people have a vague notion that there is something they would like to do someday. When I was teaching, I was amazed at the lack of goals or even ambition in a number of my students at the Grade 12 level. It was my experience that even though we got rid of Grade 13, many youngsters were not ready to go on. Indeed today, many students still take that fifth year of high school. For some, unfortunately, it is more to delay the inevitable when they must decide a course of action for their future.
If you have a good sense of where you are and what you want, and what you know, then you are on your way to clarifying your dreams. But be warned, your dream must be realistic. You may want to be a fashion model, but if you are of a larger build, it may be less realistic to pursue that goal.
Most people don’t live out their dreams – they wish and wait. They make excuses and they hope for the best as their dreams become unfulfilled, making them become bitter and frustrated.
Too many of us get in the habit of settling for the average. How many of us did quite well in areas of schooling or later in life when we took courses we liked? For many of us, however, in less meaningful courses, we just settled for passing grades in order to get that diploma or piece of paper saying we were graduates.
Despite my earlier protestations, my youngest son and his partner have a band, probably one of a few hundred bands in the Oshawa area. Now, both Jon and Renee had sensible expectations considering they both shared the award for most likely to succeed from their music industry arts course in Fanshawe College in London.
I recall hearing John Denver being asked what advice he would give a performer hoping to make it. His response was, “Don’t let anyone deter you from your dream.” I am still struggling in my efforts to be less critical.
So some of you now may have heard of The Standstills. It took seven years of hard work, promising reviews from people in the music business and never giving up. They finally had a song in the Top 10 in Canada (Orleans), and have just released a second song which hopefully will do even better (Rise Of The Fall). You can find them at ‘TheStandstills.com’. Let me know what you think.
It’s been said that you may succeed if nobody else believes in you, but you will never succeed if you don’t believe in yourself. We don’t have a clue as to what other people’s limits are. Just look at Terry Fox! So who is to say how far you may go?
As for older readers, I offer this advice from Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, the author of The Power of Positive Thinking: “Think positively about yourself. Ask God who made you to keep on remaking you.” You may send your positive comments to bdfox@rogers.com.