No Limits, No Boundaries

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One day as I sat in my grade 8 Spanish class at St. Augustine’s College, as we did an exercise from our textbook, I looked at the photos of Madrid, Spain in the textbook and I screamed out to everyone “I am going to study and live in Spain one day”. They all laughed at me and one of them said “in your dreams”. Spanish was always my favourite subject. My Spanish books went everywhere I went. As I pushed the trolley for my mother, in the food store, I would put my book on top of the trolley to learn my vocabulary words. On Sunday mornings I would study Spanish as the church service went on. Every Sunday, Sis. Roker would complain to my parents, “Pam was studying in church again”. I had Spanish for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All day – Spanish! My parents could not get me to study anything else. Spanish, Spanish, Spanish!

Well, I graduated from St. Augustine’s College with the highest grade in the Spanish GCE. I went on to study Spanish at The College of The Bahamas and also did my Teacher’s Certificate. In 1986, after completing my teacher’s certificate, I taught for a few months at S. C. McPherson Junior High School. It was then that I decided that it fluently. It was then that I made preparations to go to university in Madrid, Spain to learn the language. Yes, I left for Madrid, Spain, the same place where I was told that I would only go there in my dreams. I stayed there until 1992. While living in Madrid, I not only attended university classes, but I also sang around the city and on Spanish television, and I acted in numerous Spanish movies with famous Spanish movie directors like Pedro Almodovar and actors such as Jose Luis Lopez Vazquez. Yes!

The Spanish language opened up so many doors for me… so many opportunities. It’s a good thing that I did not listen to the naysayers!

The final principal that you must practice to live a life with no limits and no boundaries is to surround yourself with like-minded, positive Christian people. Young people, your friends will either make you or break you. If all of your friends are unbelievers who don’t even know God’s purpose for their lives, very soon, you will find yourself drifting through life right along with them. Now I know there is pressure to be cool and to hang out with the popular guys. Some of you may say, “my friends are not Christians but I’m going to influence them, not the other way around.” Well, picture yourself sitting at the top of a high wall. You’re holding a rope trying to pull your best friends to the top of the wall. What do you think will happen? Do you think you will pull them up or they will pull you down? You better believe it, they will pull you right down to their level. Now I am not telling you that you should only have Christian friends, but I am telling you that your inner circle of close friends should be Christians. Why is this important you may ask? I’ll tell you. When you are faced with difficult decisions, your Christian friends can pray with you seeking God’s guidance. When you are at a quandary and need advice, your Christian friends won’t steer you wrong. When the roads get rocky and trust me, They WILL… Your Christian friends will give you an encouraging word to keep you on the right path. They can stand in the gap and pray for you. They will be your personal cheerleaders along your journey. These are ones who will be your lifelong friends. If you want to sore with eagles, you cannot hang out with turkeys. OR you can’t have eagle aspirations and turkey affiliations. Surround yourself with like-minded positive Christian people. Now notice I said positive, because not all Christians are positive. But let’s not get into that, because we could be here all night talking about negative Christians. Take the example of the three Hebrew boys Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They knew that that they were set apart for a special purpose. They didn’t hang out with King Nebuchadnezzar’s other servants drinking their wine and eating their strange meats and foods sacrificed to idols. They were each other’s best friends. And when their faith was tested, they stood together, with one mind and one purpose and God delivered them from the fiery furnace. What do you think would have happened if their inner circle had secular friends who didn’t believe in God? Their friends would have encouraged them to bow and worship the king. Or if they listened to their friends, they may have doubted God and never survived the furnace. It is so important to surround yourselves with positive Christian people.

2011 graduates, you have done well. I am sure your family and friends are extremely proud of you and your accomplishments. But as I said earlier, the journey has just begun. Last night, as I looked at your profiles, I notice that all of you have a vision for the future. From this graduating class, we have two future chefs, Ashley and Kirvez. We have a mechanical engineer, Thedro Neely. Adonia will be a teacher. Phillippa will be a pediatrician. Trevor will be into computers. Gabrielle will be a lawyer and Blair will be into the world of business. I also notice that at least seven of you will be attending COB. Some of you may have a great start. Others may not have such a great start. Maybe you didn’t work as hard as you should have. You may have to start at College Prep or you may not get the job you want. But don’t be discouraged. The race is just beginning. What I love about the race of life is that it is not a 100 meter dash. If it were a 100 meter dash, many of us would be left behind. But praise God, this race is a long distance one. So even if you got off on a slow start, you can still catch up. Yes, it might be a little harder, but hard work brings success. The race of life is not for the swiftest, but for he who endures until the end. Young people, live extraordinary lives. Live lives with NO LIMITS AND NO BOUNDARIES. God bless you!