Generation Grit Winners.

We need hope in this day and age. We need to be inspired. We need to believe again. 

Leading the charge for hope, inspiration and resilience are 25 nominees under the ST Generation Grit Award 2018. 

What these nominees have in common is that they are young, they have gone through tough times, and they emerged from it stronger with hope undimmed. 

We have Jean Tan, 33. She is “a singer-songwriter who was born with a severe cleft palate and was told she would never be able to speak properly.” She has gone to produce several albums. 

We have Jun Xiang, 22, who “went from Normal stream to studying medicine at the National University of Singapore”.

We have Yong Jie, 23, who “had a stroke at the age of 19 and was retrenched from his job later. Now he is studying to be a social worker.”

We also have a childhood cancer survivor, “she is now a national archer” (Keller Chai, 21). 

How about Hairul, who “overcame a tough childhood to graduate with First Class Honours in law” and “a top student whose parents died suddenly. His mother committed suicide, and his dad died in his sleep”? 

The list goes on and on. They will be recognised and honoured on May 6 at the National Library. 

Kudos to ST Theresa Tan for finding these exceptional individuals fighting their own fight, standing firm against the storm of doubts, and overcoming all odds to be where they are today. 

Of course, their journey has not ended. For many it has just begun. It is still a long journey. But they have a template to follow. They once overcame. Their hope once guided them. They will thus not take things for granted. 

Theresa said: “In this age of disruptions, I feel we need to tell more stories of hope, of courage, of resilience.”

Lesson? One.

Einstein once said this, “There are only two ways to live your life: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle.”

In similar vein, you can live your life two ways too, as though nothing is possible, or as though everything is possible.

Miracles and possibility are two sides of the same circumstantial coin. 

When life descends into chaos, when all seems lost, and hope dims into a blur, these generation gritters (for lack of a better term) took the road less travelled and created a way for themselves. 

They focused on that which gave them hope, enduring hope, like their family, their passion, their belief in themselves, the encouragements from loved ones, their faith, and even that small sterling voice from within amidst the loud clamour to give up without. 

Of course, they have every reason to give up. Life didn’t in the first place start for them on a paved path with bed of roses on its sides and a firm hand to hold on to and guide them along the way. 

Yet, they turned that reason (to give up) into purpose, and that purpose into determination, and with every determination, it bore fruits that opened doors for them. 

We have a teen who slept at the void deck with her siblings. Zulayqha now “worked her way out of poverty to be a social work associate.” She said: “I hope that through this nomination, I can motivate and continue to inspire more millennials to contribute more to society.”

Then, we have a teen gangster who became a top student and entrepreneur (Jasper Yap, 24). And we have a “blind SIM undergraduate who teaches other visually impaired people to use tech in their daily lives.” (Chia Hong Sen, 22). 

Yes, we can always say that their circumstances differ from ours and they are not us. We can say that everybody wears their own shoes and walk their own paths, and the steps each person takes and the road he or she walks on differ in personality, timing, in circumstances, and even in luck too. 

But, say what you want, their struggles are the same. They were once just as lost as us in our own circumstances. Timing and luck have never been kind to them. 

In fact, for many of them, their paths were often very lonely and dark, and all they had was just enough light to shine on the next 

uncertain step ahead; the rest is pitch darkness. 

Mind you, this is not just a metaphor, but a lived experience, painful and heart-wrenching. 

And their personality might differ, but like all of us, nobody is stripped of the freedom to make choices along the way. 

The problem is never about making bad choices. We are all guilty of it. It is however when we refuse to make good ones that our path remains as it is, a downward spiral. 

These 25 nominees however turned their life around when they turn their choices around. 

Sure, some of them have made bad choices. Some are born with bad genes. And others are thrown into bad circumstances from the get-go.

But, they are tough not just because they lived through tough times. It is because they make tough choices, that is, choices of never giving up, choices of believing in themselves, and choices to focus on hope and not disappointments, on life and not suicide, and on embracing and transforming fear and doubts, and not being consumed by them.

So, Einstein was right about the two ways of living our life. It is essentially about perspectives. 

And just because there is a mountain before you, it doesn’t mean that there is no horizon after it. It is merely block by it. 

And for the 25 nominees, they are undeterred by their own mountains. They scaled it, overcame their circumstances, and in their own ways, stood at the top to enjoy the glorious views before them. That’s what makes these ordinary young people extraordinary.