OUR DESTINY
(written for a presentation to the sixth form of a local college in 2016)
Would we study just as hard here,
Hope to pursue our sixth form dreams?
If we were told what lay ahead,
Our futures pre-ordained, all said!
Must we learn Mandarin and French
To qualify as office clerk?
Will Greek and Latin us prepare
To spend a life in sick folk care?
Real life will quickly sort us out
When school and college are both past,
And stacking shelves up to the sky
May seem as high as we can fly.
Should we know where we were heading,
We’d rush toward that cosy dream,
With clear marked roads, firm bright wide routes
To where we’ll one day hang our boots.
But that’s the point – the raison d’être:
We have no special right to know
What twists and turns, what highs and lows
There are in store along life’s roads.
Better we travel, lose our way,
Then find a road that we can trust
To lead us where it suits us best,
Where we can comfortably rest.
Where we are heading, so few can know.
Lucky ones? Maybe, but I suggest
Winners are found among the rest,
Who trekk’d blind trails to reach the crest.
If we were told what lay ahead,
We should have bypassed many thrills.
Life’s wine would so diluted be
If we should know our destiny.
