BY CHARLES KADAMANA
Acting Vice-Chancellor of the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) Dr Jack Maebuta inspired White River Community High School graduates through his reflections of his successful personal journey in life.
Dr Maebuta’s journey to success is a long story he achieved it through perseverance, which he masters it from his heart, head and hands.
He highlighted these when delivering his keynote address during the school’s graduation ceremony at Pacific Casino Hotel yesterday.
Dr Maebuta said his journey when he started in high school did not turn out as he wanted but what inspired him is, his goal to do his personal best.
He recalls that during his primary school days he did not have the marks to go to national secondary school so he ended up in provincial secondary.
In Form 3, he did not have the marks to make it to Form 4 so he was pushed out at Form 3.
But that did not stop him because in his heart he knew Education is a limitless industry.
As result of that he was accepted to do Primary teaching at the Solomon Island College of High Education.
He said what motivates him at that time is he has an inspiring goal and that is to do his personal best.
“I set my goal that I must work hard and do my personal best.
“My personal best is not the best for others. Personal best is not all about getting straight A grades. It is about giving your best.
“If your best is C grades that’s your best and it can move you on as you journey through your education journey,” he told the graduates.
Dr Maebuta added that to succeed in life they have to educate themselves (Head).
“You must guide your education because it is like gold mine so you must guide it well.
“Education gives you more options in life.
“After completing my teacher training, I started my preliminary studies at USP centre here.
“It was a challenge. Being a form three dropout, I have difficulties in the subjects but what got me through was reading and reading and reading and more reading of my course materials.
“When I read, I don’t understand, I read and read again until there is a window of understanding,” he said.
Dr Maebuta encourages the graduates to train to read no matter how hard it is they can go as far they can.
He further said to succeed in life they must take action despite their failures.
“You may be discouraged because you may see yourself as failure. Don’t see yourself as failure.
“When I dropped out of Form 3, I did not see myself as failure but that experience pushed me to aspire and do something which I did.”
He said failure is a good thing. It is feedback and it is success in progress.
“Don’t be afraid to fail. Be less concerned with short-term failure, and more concerned with long-term success.
“Your career is a marathon, not a sprint so if you’re not off to a fast start, don’t sweat it. Your High School is where your career starts, but it’s where it ends that counts.
“See the benefits in not getting the mark you want (when one door closes, another door opens)
“It’s character building. We learn much more from our challenges than our successes,” he said.
He told the graduates to search for a goal that inspires them, educate themselves and take action despite failures.
