11 July 2013

DREAM. DARE. DO.

Why on earth am I wearing red socks? Well, yesterday I went wearing those Red Socks, as part of the Dream Team for the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Trust week, to speak to some Yr 13 Girls at St Dominic’s in Henderson. It’s years since I was in a class room and I was impressed with the knowledge, sassiness, wit and vision that some of those young women have.

I was there to speak about leadership and to encourage the students to have dreams. I was surprised that every single girl in the room had been overseas. I was 21 before I left New Zealand. And I was glad to hear so many of them are part time players already in the workforce.

There were some interesting answers about personal dreams. I loved the young woman who is planning to do midwifery next year and has a dream to open an orphanage in West Africa or India. I was amused by the young lady who wants to make tons of money but has no idea what to study next year. And I was surprised how many want to enter the health industry as doctors or health professionals. The country will be in good hands.

Near the end of the session I shared my own dream for our country, New Zealand. This sparked much discussion. My dream is that New Zealanders everywhere will fall in love with the freshness and taste of the amazing healthy food that’s available from our farms, gardens, orchards and supermarkets and start cooking for themselves every day instead of buying takeaways and prepared meals.

That prompted one young woman to say if that happened she’d be out of a job. So guess where she works? McD’s of course. Good on them for providing jobs for young people and for offering healthy options I said. But here’s the crunch; “Nobody,” she said, “just nobody ever orders those!”