I had the privilege of speaking once again this week to another school group. It is fast becoming my favourite audience to engage with. I guess because they are roughly the same age as Ben, they can relate to some of the things that we talk about, and to him, being one of their peers. I am pretty confident at the end they had a clear picture of who Benny is. Mission accomplished!

One of the things I always say is that two things happen to every single person out there. “Can anyone tell me what those two things are?” Inevitably someone always replies, we are born, and we die. There is obviously a clear line of emotions that occur when we talk about these seemingly opposing topics but the message for both is straight forward. Life is precious!

I wrote about this just last week and it seems to be the flavour of the month. Many have heard the saying that we should live life to the fullest and live every day as if it’s our last. I realise this seems and often feels impractical but perhaps we could place a little higher priority on at least doing something every day that is impactful, purposeful and actually makes us feel good.

I spoke with someone at the beginning of the week and she told me a story of a family in her community who had lost two children in the space of four months. As if losing one child was not mind screwing enough, how do you cope with losing two? It was a strong reminder that there is always someone worse off than me! And again, how life should never to be taken for granted.

As it would happen a few days later I was given the news that Ben’s now year 11 class had lost another beautiful young man. I was surprised how devastated I was despite not knowing the family or the child. Just knowing he was a friend of Ben’s and Jordan’s broke my heart not to mention my thoughts immediately flooding to his parents.

It’s amazing how we are going along, going along and then all of a sudden life seems incomprehensible even cruel. There seems to always be something. I believe we have chosen as humans, to navigate our way through, dodging the bullets and jumping the hurdles.

How else can we grow, build resilience and hopefully gain a sense of compassion towards others? We get to choose how we react.

As I stood there in front of 20 or so young adults I looked into their eyes. These kids were filled with hopes, dreams and some with tears. I remembered in the moment something I had read once ‘Our eyes are the windows to our soul’.

So, for all my younger readers and friends and all my ‘extra’ children and especially my ‘extra’ son, you are awesome! You add so much value to the world you don’t even realise. You have so much to offer you cannot imagine the difference you will and do make.

For every single problem, I can promise you there is always a solution no matter how impossible you see the picture. You are stronger than most adults and when others will give up and give in, you can choose to stay standing. Know from me that you can be, do and have everything you want in your life, you create it! And, you are never alone.

Many of you say to me you ask yourselves at various times ‘What would Ben say?’

I think he would say ‘We’ve Got This! C’Mon, Let’s kick ass!’.

Much Love

Dalya xx 💙