Kay:

Hello, questers. Hoping you’re having a terrific Tuesday. It is 11.23.21. Yes, 1 1 2 3 2 1. Episode 472 coming at you today, and we have a beautiful quote for you today. The quote is. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” This comes to us from Malala Yousafzai.

Shi:

Malala Yousafzai is often referred to as a singular entity of just Malala. She is a Pakistani activist for female education. She’s a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. She’s also the world’s youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the second Pakistani ever to win. She is truly an, I think, women’s rights icon. And she’s still so young and it’s amazing to get to follow her journey and be, I think, alive at the same time as someone of her caliber, of her spirit. I love that she brings forward a quote here that is short but powerful, and that helps us see that it’s not about being too old or too young, that new dreams and new goals are something all of us should engage in.

Kay:

I don’t think it’s too much of a secret that in her home country of Pakistan, women’s rights are not necessarily very free. There aren’t a lot of them, and Malala was attacked as a young girl for going to school. She was going to school, and I believe she was either shot or… Yeah, I think she got shot, and it was just a horrific, horrific event. But when she got done or after this attack had happened to her, she continued to go to school, and not just that, she started to speak out against violence against women who are seeking education and then brought a lot of awareness to the issue of women’s rights to education. It was so incredible to see her stand up in this way. So, she’s somebody who very nearly had her entire life taken from her and she’s now saying, well, you’re never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream, but she’s really young, but she almost died. Then after that, she wins a Nobel freaking Peace Prize in her twenties. Where do you go from there? So, this is someone who has been through a lot, has accomplished a lot, did so at a young age, and is still saying there’s time to set new dreams and do more.

Shi:

I think to link this reflection from such a young person demonstrates very deep and rare wisdom to be her age and her level of accomplishment. In sociology, you talk about how there are two different kinds of traits. There are ascribed traits. Those are the things that you’re born with. You’re female, we’re white, we’re American. Those are all ascribed traits for us. Then there are these achieved statuses. There are achieved traits. A college graduate, committing a crime and going to prison, these are things that you’ve done that you achieve this status. I think when we think about someone like Malala, she had this ascribed status, and then she’s achieved a lot through that ascribed status. But I think coming back to where I started there, this reflection of deep wisdom from such a young woman having gone through ascribed and achieved circumstances to get where she is now.

It’s beautiful because she’s reflecting on how others will reflect on her and say, “I wish I wouldn’t have wasted my life,” or “Gosh, well, I’m in my fifties now, or sixties now, or thirties now, or late twenties now, what can I do? I didn’t get shot in the face as a teenager. I’m not in that circumstance. I haven’t achieved or ascribed anything like that so what can I do?” For her to be able to turn that mirror around and say that you’re never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream and whatever the old goals and the old dreams were. Pre-achievement, pre-ascribed status, pre where you currently are right now, it does matter, but only so much is that it sets you up to do the next new thing. So, I think there’s a lot to reflect on here from this quote.

Kay:

Well, what she’s saying is that those dreams that you have, change, and they grow as you grow. The things that light you up inside, you get a new perspective, and they get richer over time. I bet you’ve experienced this already. I know Shila and I certainly have. If you asked us four years ago or maybe painted a picture of our life today, we would say, “Wow, that’s a little bit different but man, that seems like exactly what we were hoping for.” So, interesting how these things can come out and it’s okay for dreams to change and grow as you go. Look, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a unicorn. With all of my heart, if I could have just been a unicorn when I grew up, that would have been fantastic. But then I got to be maybe eight or nine years old and I realized that my five-year-old dream of wanting to become a unicorn when I grew up was an unlikely thing to succeed because I am a human and unicorns do not exist. So, you can see that even though that’s a silly example, it’s okay to let go of that old in order to embrace that next thing as your dreams grow and change. So, as Malala reminds us, “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

Shi:

Alright, that brings us to your quest for the day. Now, before you go to bed tonight, you have a singular action item to do, and that is to write down a dream or goal and envision it in your mind’s eye. Bonus points if you even say it out loud a handful of times to help your brain really soak it in. But do that before you go to bed, write down a new dream or a new goal today and we hope that this helps you move forward no matter how old you are. Are you ready?

Kay:

Let’s quest!