Following Your Instinct

In 1929, Albert Einstein stated ‘I believe in intuitions and inspirations. I sometimes feel that I am right, I do not know that I am’.  He went on to advocate that one should trust their instincts and test them out later, rather than dismiss them out of hand.  Whether you term it as following your heart, listening to God’s calling or another similar phrase with the same meaning, it is an approach to life that I both favour and encourage.

In Senior Assembly I decided to focus on the theme of ‘Following your Instinct’.  After a short introduction, where two Upper Sixth girls played a game of ‘Bee in a Hive’ (an idea that I borrowed from 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown’s ‘Carrot in a Box’), I moved on to talk about a seminal moment of my life.  In 2008, at the age of 23, I decided to take a job at Victoria College in Jersey despite the fact I was very happy, and intended on spending my life, in Belfast.  Despite only planning to go there for a year, I have never returned home, and the experience gained by following my instinct started a chain reaction which eventually led me to Farnborough Hill, holding a position which allows me to live in my element daily.

I reflected on this theme further when interviewing the Year 11, who are keen to secure a place in our Sixth Form.  The girls beamed when talking about their aspirations for life in the Sixth Form but the thing they wrestled with most was, without doubt, their subject selection.  I would implore them to follow the lesson from Gemma, a Lower Sixth student who, in my Assembly, discussed her dilemma when deciding between Computer Science and Music as her final A level choice.  She reflected on how the logical option seemed to be Computer Science but, in the end, followed her heart to select a Music A level that she now adores and is currently considering how it might fit in her future, beyond life on the Hill.

Sometimes even the most logical decisions do not work out in a way that we had hoped so, when important decisions are to be made, it seems prudent to me to pause for a moment, search inside yourself for what intrinsically seems right and act accordingly.  It is only by being true to yourself that you can be content, happy and at peace.

Mr Craig McCready, Head of Sixth Form