Millicent, George and the Alumni Directory
The late British author and speaker, Sir Ken Robinson, talked about a brilliant editor he met. Her name was Millicent. While chatting with her, Sir Ken realized that until recently, she had been a concert pianist.
Once, during a concert, the conductor of the piece noticed that Millicent didn’t seem to be enjoying her own performance. So, he brought up his observation while having dinner with her. She was taken by surprise. She had never thought that loving what she did had any role to play in choosing to do what she did. She played music because she was very good at it, and she had always thought that that was all that mattered. One man’s question made her look at her life from a different perspective. She understood that her passion lay in books, and five years later, she was having this conversation with Sir Ken.
Just because we are good at something doesn’t mean that doing it will bring us joy and fulfilment. On the other hand, sometimes what we love doing is not something that comes easily to us. George Harrison, the lead guitarist of The Beatles, initially struggled to learn to play. He kept at it, and is said to have practiced so hard that his fingers bled. And, as we know, he went on to become a member of one of the most famous bands in history.
When I was in the last year of college, my husband showed me the Alumni Directory. It listed the names of the alumni, the year they had joined, and their current addresses. We went over those names together, and saw the variety of places that those people had ended up working in. A large majority of them were now settled abroad. And in that long list, there were some who were now deceased. Some of them prematurely so. I was young then, and after all the effort that went into getting into the college, this was quite a jolt.
We were just two of the many, many people who had joined our college over the years. Those alumni must have had some of the same struggles and dreams that we had. All of them were good at what they did; they were good at studying hard. They must have imagined greatness, or great success, in their future. Did they achieve the success that they were hoping for? More importantly, were they happy with how their life turned out. Especially the ones who were no longer with us; were they able to achieve contentment with the time they had on earth.
After going through that book, the feeling that stayed with me was not the success of the alumni. Rather, what I took away from that experience was a reminder of the brevity of life.
There is a risk that we may spend our lives doing what we have always done, because that is what we are most accustomed to do. But are we feeling fulfilled by our lives? In my opinion, that is an important question to ask ourselves. From time to time.
“I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.”
Jimi Hendrix
P.S.: The lecture in which Sir Ken Robinson talks about Millicent is a long one, but it is entertaining and illuminating throughout its length. If, however, you only want to listen to the story of Millicent, it starts around the 35-minute mark.
