We’ve come to the end of what can be described as Graduation Season in Anguilla. For the past two weeks, family members, friends, godparents, teachers (past and present) and senior public officials, have witnessed students at various stages in their education graduate from one institution to another. While the grandeur attached to some of the ceremonies, and the activities surrounding the graduations, may be described as excessive, it cannot be denied that graduations are occasions of pride for many persons who genuinely desire to see young people explore and experience their full potential.
Graduations are a ray of sunshine, a rainbow, a silver lining in a world where too many persons appear to delight in promoting and thriving on negativity. While there are sometimes questions pertaining to the criteria for according awards, generally persons appear to genuinely delight in the success and progress of others. This is a feeling that we should promote and extend to all our relationships. The same feeling of enthusiasm with which parents exchange congratulations upon the graduation of their children should be extended to their children’s success as young adults in the workplace; at university; in their entrepreneurial exploits; in their marriages; and in their sporting and music endeavours. After all, they are the same children who are now experiencing and overcoming different challenges in life. Life in Anguilla would be very different if all our comments were tempered with a feeling of goodwill towards our fellowmen. This is a reality I believe we are capable of creating.
Anguilla is a small island, with a small population. These are attributes which are sometimes viewed as having negative connotations. While in some respects this might be understandable, in many respects I consider these attributes to be strengths which we fail to capitalise on. Our size allows us to personalise our relationships while still maintaining professional standards. We can genuinely show an interest in each others progress because many of us have come from the same place and are facing the same struggles on our journeys to some other place. In these circumstances, it is difficult to understand why we no longer develop and nurture the types of relationships that in the past allowed villages to raise children.
We are often concerned that persons who are not natives of Anguilla, or the region, are given positions of authority in Anguilla’s private and public sectors. We, however, do not appear to realise that our failure to support and glorify the achievements of our homegrown talent is what is often used to justify the presence of other talent in significant positions throughout our community. If we displayed the same enthusiasm we display for our students, at graduations, for each other in our private and public achievements, I believe Anguillians would be thriving and leading in every aspect of business and development in Anguilla. This sadly is not the case. Instead we are often described as our own worst enemies.
With all the undisputed talent that abounds in Anguilla, it is disappointing that we are still not in the driving seats in areas that can potentially determine our destiny. This is a situation that must change, and must change quickly. I believe that a significant step will have been taken towards achieving change when the spirit of appreciation for the success of others, which once pervaded Anguilla, is resurrected. We can start by extending our joy at graduation, for the success of students, parents and teachers, to an appreciation for the successes of all persons in all areas of their lives. “We must be the change we want to see”.
