It was as if someone had pressed the pause button on the world.
My heart was pounding so hard in my chest, that I believed everyone could hear it, little stars suddenly started darting around in front of my eyes. I felt faint and nauseous at the same time, and it was at this point that I realized that I had literally been holding my breath. I took a sharp intake of air, and I was back in the present, trying to make sense of what was going on and how this could be happening.
Standing in the Headmasters office, looking at the serious expression on his face, I knew this was trip down a one-way street, there would be no negotiation.
Do you remember the look a teacher gives you when they are not amused? Well this was definitely one of those looks multiplied by 5.
I became aware of the warm tears rolling down my face as if someone had turned on a tap.
My life on hold
Four hours ago, my Mum had told me that she had received a call from the school secretary, asking her and I to come into school to attend a meeting with the headmaster.
We had arrived and met him in his office, within a minute of us being there he had told us both that he was, in his words, ‘releasing me from school’ and that I would not be allowed back for my final year which was due to start in just seven days’ time.
I was just about to start my final year of my higher education. Undeniably this was the most important year of my whole school education. Mandatory schooling had finished a year ago, I had then chosen to stay on for two more years to do higher level studies before pursuing my dream job, to be a Hotel General Manager. This was all I ever thought about doing as a career and it had been my mission since the age of 14. It was a very clear picture, in my mind and my imagination.
Within a split second, I felt as if my whole world had just come to an end, I saw my dreams being taken from me and I was totally crushed, I felt so embarrassed and ashamed that I had brought this to my family and the pain that brought me thinking about that was off the scale.
Through all the haze of the next few minutes, while I was imagining my life was over at 17, I heard my Mum asking the headmaster the reason why this was happening, to which he responded, “Her grades are ok, but she isn’t focused, she is too much of a day dreamer and she sits in class looking out of the window too much, this distracts others around her, she’s not taking her studies seriously.”
The next thing I recall is the meeting ending and the headmaster was holding the door, ushering us out, it was then that he took his final shot with both barrels. He launched a throwaway comment that instantly changed everything. “She will never get anywhere in life; she is too much of a day dreamer”. 14 words that will stay in my memory forever.
In a split second my tears stopped it was as if someone had thrown a bucket of iced water in my face. I came to my senses, the anger inside me was building up I felt the blood rushing to my face. How dare he wipe out my dream, my future, my life. This was the moment that EVERYTHING changed.
The pivotal point of my life
As we set off back home in frosty silence, I realized that the headmasters comment certainly wasn’t meant to be a positive one, however, looking back I am now deeply grateful as it was, without doubt, the pivotal point of my whole life.
In that moment a decision was made; I would never let anything, or anyone ever take away my dreams, they meant way too much to me.
I was determined to do anything I could to prove him wrong. I was now 100% certain that it was not only possible for me to realize my dream, but it was now absolutely inevitable.
Perhaps you too can remember a time when someone told you that you couldn’t do something, which made you want to do it all the more, right?
The challenge to prove him wrong had begun.
Dreams achieved
1 week later, I was enrolled at a college in my hometown, studying for a two-year Hotel Management Diploma. The course was fully booked with the maximum number of scheduled students, but they accepted me in and oversubscribed.
This was the start of many examples of evidence that things were aligned to work in my favour.
Sometimes we are so busy racing through life that we miss clues that we are being sent, letting us know that when we put our trust in the universal laws of life, we discover that we are in control of more than we realise.
2 years later, I had graduated from college with my diploma, and I moved back to my birth island Jersey, to look for a job in a hotel.
10 years later, after accepting every opportunity to develop that crossed my path, everything aligned again, and I became General Manager of a beautiful 4 Star hotel.
DREAM #1 achieved
None of this happened by magic. For the 10 years between the last stage and this I worked long hours, sometimes 7 days a week and with relatively low pay, but with each day I was taking baby steps towards my dream and that gave me a burning energy feeling inside which fed the momentum.
20 years later, came the next alignment of my dream.
I had moved back to England and was working at the time with Marriott hotels, when I was offered the opportunity of a lifetime which was literally straight from my dream.
It took me all of 5 minutes to decide and to say YES!!!!.
12 weeks later I had emigrated 4054 miles away to the Caribbean Island of Saint Kitts and Nevis and I had to pinch myself every day for the first year whilst sitting, taking photo's where the Atlantic Ocean and The Caribbean Sea meets, or on the beautiful beaches, with my feet actually in the warm Caribbean Sea drinking the occasional rum punch.
DREAM #2 achieved
7 years later, during the pandemic lockdown I was at home and I opened a random email from a company called 'the Brave Thinking Institute". I started to read it and became intrigued. Two days later I had signed up for an opportunity to be a Life Coach and also I had access to an amazing coaching certification program to offer my clients. I went through the training and certification, and I am now a 'DreamBuilder Life Coach', I was so happy to have actually found career where not only could I dream myself, but I could also share with others how to turn dreaming into their idea of success too.
10 years after moving to the Caribbean, I am on my third beautiful island. From my paradise in St.Kitts and Nevis. I got to live on two other islands that were also way beyond my original dreams. First the stunning white sandy beaches in Curacao and next the Isle of Spice, Grenada from where I have helped so many people globally, to clarify, design and give life to their own dreams bringing them step by step closer to the life they love living.
DREAM #3 achieved and ongoing
Fast Forward
Fast forward to today and I am sitting here, on the beautiful Island of Grenada , the Isle of Spice,
sipping a cocktail made from freshly squeezed mango from a tree in my own garden, my mind is wandering to yet another daydream………….
If only my old headmaster were still around, I would love to go back to see him to genuinely thank him for giving me that massive wakeup call all those years ago. Without that very traumatic incident, I would not have been able to take decisive action and to start the process of creating my dreams.
The girl of 17, who was told she would get nowhere in life has been living her dream life from that day to this.
Join me in my next blog where I will be sharing my thoughts on the power of a positive mindset and how this took me to achieving Dream #4, to be a published co-author of a best-selling book.
Hugs, love, and light,
Fiona
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Such a positive story 😊
Thank you, reading this gives me hope that I could follow my dream too.
I love that you are on your THIRD beautiful Island! Also that we see this was a life journey and it shows how tenacity pays off. 🧗
In addition, you show deep wisdom in that you would contact the Headmaster if you could, to thank him. You were able to use something that could have just devastated you and scarred you for life; instead you turned it into your springboard to getting to what you wanted out of this life.
You chose to ultimately see his disciplinary action as a gift which is of a much higher level of human being. I’m looking forward to your next blog post, thank you for this inspiration and sharing your story with…