SURE AND CERTAIN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 17, 20 October 1939, Page 38

SURE AND CERTAIN

Isn’t it hard to think what you teally want to do when you grow up? Careers and ambitions-they can get one rather muddled, can’t they? There’s so much to do Now -Now this minute-that it’s rather a bother having to wonder about Then, All the same when "Then" comes and you haven't decided anything about it, you might just find yourself hurried into a job you hate. That does happen, doesn’t it? Being a farmer when you want to be a newspaper reporter. Or finding yourself shut up in a Bank when all you want to do is hoe potatoes and feel the bare earth under your feet. Most mothers and fathers know their children well enough to help. But some don’t seem to know them at all-and that’s when it’s safer to think for ourselves. Once I saw an advertisement in a daily newspaper. I read it over and over and couldn’t believe it was true. And when I realised just what it meant I began to see how miserable it was for the boy and for the father too. It was from a man who was really worried and puzzled. He wanted to know if anyone would tell him what to do with his son! He said that he had spent a great deal of money on his education, that the boy was now fifteen-and hadn’t the remotest idea what he wanted to do with his life! I think the father was probably a bit stupid-and I’m certain his school was-but what sort of boy was that? I know what I should have done. I should have packed him right off to sea for a few years, like the small Lord Nelson, until he learnt to think for himself.

The world-even an idiotic war-world-is still pack-crammed with things to do-and there are few things that: have been done that we can’t do, too, if we want to, hard enough. The thing is to think out just what you’d do with your life-if there was nothing in the world to stop you. And-do it. You'll probably find there is nothing in the world to stop you, anyway. But you have to be sure it’s what you want-sure and certain.

JILL

For Your Entertainment: MONDAY. 1YA: 5 p.m. Coral Cave. 2YA: 5 pm. Ebor presents the second series of "Romance of Usetul Plants.’ 3ZR: 5 p.m. Legends of Umbogu. 4YZ: 5.30 p.m. Toyshop Tales. TUESDAY. 2YA: 5 pm. Talk by Uncle Harry, "In the Desert." 4YZ and 2YH: 5.30 p.m. David and Dawn and The Sea-Fairies. 3ZR: 5 pm. "The Friend of the Birds" -Talk WEDNESDAY. 2YA: 5 p.m. Mr. Aeroplane Man, Choruses by Sunrays. 4YA: 5 pm. Travel Man. 4YZ: 5.30 pm. Robin Hood. THURSDAY. 1YA: 5 p.m. Little Women. 2YA: 5 p.m. Games Night. 2YH: 5.45 p.m. Coral Cave. 3ZR: 5 p.m. David and Dawn in Fairyland. 4YZ: 5.30 p.m. David and Dawn and The Sea-Fairies. FRIDAY. 1YA: 5 pm. David and Dawn in Fairyland. 2YA: 5 p.m. Talk on Barques by Andy Man. 4YA: 5 p.m. Botany Club. 3ZR: 5 pm. Richard The Lion. Heart. 4YZ: 5.30 p.m. Toyshop Tales. SATURDAY. 2YA: 5 p.m. Musical Programme trom Miss Fitzgerald’s Studio. 2YH: 5.45 p.m. Westward Hol! All ZB Station: The Lone Ranger. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 7 p.m.