Message for High School Students
Dr. Goodall has a message for you. How did she begin her career? What lesson did she learn from her experiences? What advice does she have to offer you?
When I was young, growing up in England, I dreamed of going to Africa and writing books about the wild animals who lived there. Almost everyone laughed at me: after all, my family had very little money (we could not even afford a bicycle, certainly not a car); Africa seemed very far away; and I was a GIRL—in those days girls did not do things like that. But my mother never laughed at me. She would tell me: “If you really want something and you work really hard and you take advantage of opportunities and you never give up, you will find a way.”
You may not immediately make your dream come true. We could not afford for me to go to university (and there were no scholarships back then unless you were good in a foreign language, and I simply was not). My mother suggested I take a secretarial course so that, perhaps, I could get a job in Africa. When an old school friend invited me to Kenya for a holiday, I jumped at the chance. To earn the fare I worked as a waitress, living at home. I was 23 years old when I sailed off, following my dream. (Boats were cheaper than planes in those days.)
I heard that Dr. Louis Leakey might help me to work with animals, and went to see him at the natural history museum. He gave me a job as his secretary, but was so impressed by how much I knew about animals (from all my reading) that, eventually, he asked if I would go and study a group of wild chimpanzees. Wow! Not just any animal, but the one most like us!
And so my message to you is the same as the one my wise mother gave to me—don’t let anyone laugh you out of YOUR dream. But remember, you will have to work hard, look for opportunities, and NEVER GIVE UP.
But perhaps you do not yet know what you want to do when you leave school. Don’t be in a hurry to decide. Just wait quietly, learning about all the different opportunities. One day you will suddenly become motivated—by attending a lecture, watching a documentary, a chance meeting. Suddenly you will think: THIS IS IT!
And then, for everyone, there is one last message, one that I think is very important indeed. This life is about a lot more than just making money. We need money to live, but we should never live for money. Wealth does not necessarily lead to happiness. What will make you happy is doing something that makes you feel useful so that you feel your life has meaning. So, if you do get wealthy, use your wealth in such a way that you do maximum good.
Dr. Goodall has a message for you. How did she begin her career? What lesson did she learn from her experiences? What advice does she have to offer you?
When I was young, growing up in England, I dreamed of going to Africa and writing books about the wild animals who lived there. Almost everyone laughed at me: after all, my family had very little money (we could not even afford a bicycle, certainly not a car); Africa seemed very far away; and I was a GIRL—in those days girls did not do things like that. But my mother never laughed at me. She would tell me: “If you really want something and you work really hard and you take advantage of opportunities and you never give up, you will find a way.”
You may not immediately make your dream come true. We could not afford for me to go to university (and there were no scholarships back then unless you were good in a foreign language, and I simply was not). My mother suggested I take a secretarial course so that, perhaps, I could get a job in Africa. When an old school friend invited me to Kenya for a holiday, I jumped at the chance. To earn the fare I worked as a waitress, living at home. I was 23 years old when I sailed off, following my dream. (Boats were cheaper than planes in those days.)
I heard that Dr. Louis Leakey might help me to work with animals, and went to see him at the natural history museum. He gave me a job as his secretary, but was so impressed by how much I knew about animals (from all my reading) that, eventually, he asked if I would go and study a group of wild chimpanzees. Wow! Not just any animal, but the one most like us!
And so my message to you is the same as the one my wise mother gave to me—don’t let anyone laugh you out of YOUR dream. But remember, you will have to work hard, look for opportunities, and NEVER GIVE UP.
But perhaps you do not yet know what you want to do when you leave school. Don’t be in a hurry to decide. Just wait quietly, learning about all the different opportunities. One day you will suddenly become motivated—by attending a lecture, watching a documentary, a chance meeting. Suddenly you will think: THIS IS IT!
And then, for everyone, there is one last message, one that I think is very important indeed. This life is about a lot more than just making money. We need money to live, but we should never live for money. Wealth does not necessarily lead to happiness. What will make you happy is doing something that makes you feel useful so that you feel your life has meaning. So, if you do get wealthy, use your wealth in such a way that you do maximum good.