Young Australians without Goals (YAGs) by bsj-rom
Four finalists of the Young Australian of the Year 2007 competition were in Tasmania, completing the final leg of their tour. They spoke to a group of schools at the university's "University Club". I was invited along by the engineering Head of School. He was invited along because one of the finalists was an engineer.
Darren Lomman is a mechanical engineer who runs an organisation that makes stuff for people with disabilities. His passion for motorbikes and a chance encounter with a paraplegic ex-rider inspired him to build a motorbike for paraplegics for his final year engineering project. The project took him three years to complete. His organisation has since built a hovercraft, a yacht and an abseiling wall, recruiting various students to run the organisation - particularly engineering students to complete design work.
Having endured a couple of hundred rejections for sponsorship, he finally got one company to donate parts, and then another, until thirty companies agreed to sponsor the project, as well as the university - who originally was very skeptical about the idea.
John from the ACT was another of the finalists. He is a quietly spoken father of three. At twenty-five, he's got a lot to offer - despite never getting through highschool.
John's story begins in a broken home, with a mother who drank too much. He started smoking and drinking at the age of twelve. From there he got involved with heavier drugs and doing crime. He was in jail and recalls seeing his girlfriend pregnant with their second child. This, he thought, was crap. It was crap that he couldn't even give her a hug.
When he got out, he decided that this wasn't the life for him, and was worried about brothers and cousins heading down the same road. He set up an organisation called Connections. The idea of Connections is that young people are the best people to educate young people.
It was interesting talking to him afterwards about education. I come from the position of never even considering not going to university. He came from the position of never considering starting college. In his circles, going to college was unheard of - the girls would get pregnant, so they'd have to go get a job. The blokes would also have to drop out to work. Or do drugs.*
This education gap has been noticeable to me for a little while now. One of my colleagues in George Town was ecstatic because his son had been accepted into university - the first in his family. I also found it interesting in highschool. New students would come and they'd look at what we were doing and say that they'd covered that content in years previous. There was this seeming deficiency in the schooling system. Despite this, plenty of us have progressed on to uni without any fuss.
The upshot of it is that I really don't know what to make of that educational gap.
The other thing was that they were all going on about how crap they were academically - the engineer was going on about how they wouldn't have let him in to uni had he come through today. They were all going on about how academic ability has nothing to do with it. While not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, I certainly outperformed these finalists academically, which left me thinking "WHY THE EXPLETIVE DID I BOTHER?" Nobody's been able to give me a worthwhile answer to date. Some say it's good preparation. I'm not convinced. I'm more of the opinion that it was poor prioritisation.
All of the speakers were really goal driven. They had something that they could see and that they had to get to.
What is my goal? I can write down whatever I like, but I'm just not convinced of it. I don't know what I want. Does it matter what I want?
So, I want to graduate with Honours. Preferably with really good marks.
I want to be different. But everybody's different, so I'm screwed on that front.
I want my work to be useful, creative and excellent.
I want to write.
I want to ask questions.
I want to play music.
I want to run around.
I want to be the best.
I want to umpire the best.
I want to have fun.
I want to just waste time with my friends.
I want to be creative.
I want to make people think.
I want to have a big impact on the world, preferably for better.
So in all of this, you're probably asking me where God is in all this. I was thinking the same thing. What is God's plan for me? If only I knew. My aim and purpose: to bring glory to him. That's a particularly noble ambition, but it's pretty meaningless on its own. It lacks definition. I can see the another chicken/egg dilemma. But I believe in creation, so it was definitely the chicken.
Anyway, you've come to the end of an epic ramble only because it's dinner time and I haven't had lunch...
Darren Lomman is a mechanical engineer who runs an organisation that makes stuff for people with disabilities. His passion for motorbikes and a chance encounter with a paraplegic ex-rider inspired him to build a motorbike for paraplegics for his final year engineering project. The project took him three years to complete. His organisation has since built a hovercraft, a yacht and an abseiling wall, recruiting various students to run the organisation - particularly engineering students to complete design work.
Having endured a couple of hundred rejections for sponsorship, he finally got one company to donate parts, and then another, until thirty companies agreed to sponsor the project, as well as the university - who originally was very skeptical about the idea.
John from the ACT was another of the finalists. He is a quietly spoken father of three. At twenty-five, he's got a lot to offer - despite never getting through highschool.
John's story begins in a broken home, with a mother who drank too much. He started smoking and drinking at the age of twelve. From there he got involved with heavier drugs and doing crime. He was in jail and recalls seeing his girlfriend pregnant with their second child. This, he thought, was crap. It was crap that he couldn't even give her a hug.
When he got out, he decided that this wasn't the life for him, and was worried about brothers and cousins heading down the same road. He set up an organisation called Connections. The idea of Connections is that young people are the best people to educate young people.
It was interesting talking to him afterwards about education. I come from the position of never even considering not going to university. He came from the position of never considering starting college. In his circles, going to college was unheard of - the girls would get pregnant, so they'd have to go get a job. The blokes would also have to drop out to work. Or do drugs.*
This education gap has been noticeable to me for a little while now. One of my colleagues in George Town was ecstatic because his son had been accepted into university - the first in his family. I also found it interesting in highschool. New students would come and they'd look at what we were doing and say that they'd covered that content in years previous. There was this seeming deficiency in the schooling system. Despite this, plenty of us have progressed on to uni without any fuss.
The upshot of it is that I really don't know what to make of that educational gap.
The other thing was that they were all going on about how crap they were academically - the engineer was going on about how they wouldn't have let him in to uni had he come through today. They were all going on about how academic ability has nothing to do with it. While not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, I certainly outperformed these finalists academically, which left me thinking "WHY THE EXPLETIVE DID I BOTHER?" Nobody's been able to give me a worthwhile answer to date. Some say it's good preparation. I'm not convinced. I'm more of the opinion that it was poor prioritisation.
All of the speakers were really goal driven. They had something that they could see and that they had to get to.
What is my goal? I can write down whatever I like, but I'm just not convinced of it. I don't know what I want. Does it matter what I want?
So, I want to graduate with Honours. Preferably with really good marks.
I want to be different. But everybody's different, so I'm screwed on that front.
I want my work to be useful, creative and excellent.
I want to write.
I want to ask questions.
I want to play music.
I want to run around.
I want to be the best.
I want to umpire the best.
I want to have fun.
I want to just waste time with my friends.
I want to be creative.
I want to make people think.
I want to have a big impact on the world, preferably for better.
So in all of this, you're probably asking me where God is in all this. I was thinking the same thing. What is God's plan for me? If only I knew. My aim and purpose: to bring glory to him. That's a particularly noble ambition, but it's pretty meaningless on its own. It lacks definition. I can see the another chicken/egg dilemma. But I believe in creation, so it was definitely the chicken.
Anyway, you've come to the end of an epic ramble only because it's dinner time and I haven't had lunch...
posted by BSJ-rom at 6:16 pm
4 Comments:
Nice list of 'wants'. It's good to work out some of the things you do want to do in life. I think at the moment I'm a YAG. I think I'd better start writing my own one...
Yeah, why do we bother getting a degree? Maybe it's proof that we've stuck around somewhere long enough to get something finished. Or maybe it's just a quicker alternative to what that engineer would have had to do to get where he is.
I suppose in engineering there is a big practical side which doesn't require a uni degree. I don't think, however, that even a very hardworking college dropout will get very far in theoretical quantum physics. So perhaps a degree is a sort of proof that you know what you're talking about.
It seams like the Young Australian thing is about being a entrepreneur, which is not the same thing as a qualified engineer. I have tried to be the entrepreneur before. I had a product, a niche market, a (very) small business, some ideas etc. And I tried to "sell" the idea to people running the NIES scheame and stuff like that.
But consider that the Young Australian of the year will be a entrepreneur that by chance has stumbled upon a fad idea, which is currently something to do with the environment etc. And consider that most of these kids will be bankrupt in 2 years. Or forever in debt with friends and family.
But the qualified engineer is almost garanteed a job and will be earning good money. Maybe not in the newspaper, but their work is more secure and more worthwhile.
I was making bike parts full time for about 3 years. My rivals tried to stir up the media, they got in the newspaper twice and were set to be "the next biggest thing since Incat". But they didn't even end up with one good bike that wasn't crooked.
How diplomatic... not even a single brand name Jonny!
I find it frustrating when I see people give up when things get a bit difficult. It really bugs me. When I think of some of the uni assignments that people dropped out of because, it makes me wonder how they can have a future anywhere. That is not at all saying that the assignments were easy or not stressful. Not at all. They were very stressful and I really struggled. But you eventally get there if you invest the time.
I'm skeptical about people who start in say engi, then drift to maths, then to physics, then to chem then to this then to that. It seems that they have no pain threshold whatsoever.
Anyway, why am I ranting again??? I'm tired. And I have work to do.
You forgot one:
"I want to get married and have ten babies."
Maybe the Young Australian of the Year isn't about the kids who were able to get degrees, but rather about those who, despite their lack of "qualifications" (whatever that means), did the best that they could in the situation they were in.
I was the first in my family to get a degree - they were, of course, immensely proud. Looking back, I don't use much of the knowledge I got from Uni, but I'm glad with what it did give me. At the same time, my brother didn't go to Uni but it doing well in his own right. If you try your best in any situation you find yourself in, you're bound to get somewhere (eventually).
Of course, that's coming after a full day when I didn't get time for a lunch break...
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