Medina Hajdarevic：不积跬步，无以至千里

所以我想当美国的国务卿,但我是澳大利人，我怎么可能当美国的国务卿。我再想一想，我觉得可以当澳大利亚外交官，所以这是我的梦。所以你能会问为什么这么一个年轻的女孩想当澳大利亚的外交官。这个是关于我自己的故事。

When I was young, my family and I, we had a bit of a difficult time. The reason why I wanted to become a diplomat actually goes back to my childhood and why my family came to Australia.

Currently, in the world, they're over sixty five million displaced people, and of those, there are twenty one million who are refugees. in 1992, I was one of those people.

The reason that I wanted to become a diplomat goes back to that, you see, I wasn't born in Australia, I was actually born in a country called Bosnia in Europe. I spent my first birthday there, but shortly after, my family had no choice but to flee war. Facing probable death, we left Bosnia and we made our way through Europe, through Croatia, to the safety of Slovenia. During that time, my mom and I, we were actually in a refugee camp. In that refugee camp, I would be fed such bad food that I would get really sick. And as my mom made it through Croatia to Slovenia, she wondered if I’d die in her arms. At that time, we were also separated from my father, he had to flee separately, but we did make it to Slovenia where I would spend my second birthday. The reason we spent a time there was because my uncle and aunt lived there but we only made it there because of luck. When my uncle and aunt came to pick us up at the border and help us get through, my uncle started talking to the border guard about the weather. When they were talking about the weather the border guard didn't really check my mom's passport probably and he let us through. So, that was how we end up in Slovenia, there we would spend about eight months apart from my dad as we waited to see if our refugee status would be accepted.

Leaving Europe was very hard for my family.

这个照片是在机场，我们回去澳大利亚的时候，非常困难的时候。

It was a whole new life and we would have to adjust. We didn't speak English, we didn't know anyone, and we didn't have any clue of what life there would be like, that's where I would spend my third birthday. my parents came to Australia with nothing but the clothes that the Red Cross had given them.

Adjusting to life in Australia wasn't easy, we had to learn how to speak English again and we had to build a new life. One time I asked my mother what was it like and she said to me, “I felt like I was a child again. I had no choice, I had to learn how to speak again. I had to learn how to walk again. I had to build a whole new life again.” I didn't understand that point, until I myself went overseas for the first time.

Building a new life in Australia was far from easy, my parents had to start again, but so did I.

And in that process though I learned some really valuable skills and developed independence when other kids used to go home and ask their parents for help when they were doing their homework, I couldn't do that because my parents were learning English at the same.

When other children could, maybe, go to tutoring after school, my dad already worked seven days a week and couldn’t afford it. So I used to chase my teachers around on the lunch break to get their help. That taught me to use the resources I had around me, when I got a bit older and people started to really ask me again what do you want to be and I said, a diplomat. They said to me why don't you pick something easier why don't you become a teacher so you can stay at home with your family on the holidays and look after them, why do you want to be on the other side of the world? That taught me to not listen to everything everyone says, but rather, focus on my own dreams and so, what I worked out was I couldn't just do it in one step I had to find a series of steps that would lead me to become a diplomat. I couldn't just be good at school I'd have to learn how to speak; I would have to learn how to engage with my community. So what I did was, I came up with a series of steps that would help me get to where I wanted to become. I couldn't just go to university and get good grades, I would have to study really hard and learn a language that was useful for a diplomat. 所以我决定了学汉语。I had to get overseas experience, so I went to work in the US in the Senate and I came to China to study. I also had to develop some real work experience. while I was in university, I actually ran a 90 member not-for-profit that dealt with social issues.

All of these little things help me develop the skills I needed to one day pursue my goal. But as I said my family didn't have a lot of money so I had to also pay for it at the same time while I was doing all of this I also worked teaching statistics to first year students.

But I was so busy that I stopped looking after my health and that was causing me great harm. You see, like two hundred and sixty million people across the globe who deal with anxiety, I found this lesson in a very hard way.

One day I was on the floor of a conference room having a panic attack and what that taught me was I had to stop and reevaluate how much I was choosing to do and how I dealt with being so busy.

This actually led me to my second love in life which is powerlifting 通过这个情况我发现了第二个爱情，力量举. What I found with weight lifting was, if I went to the gym every day just for one hour, if I didn't talk to anyone, if I didn't answer my emails, if I just listened to my music and lifted the weights, I could balance my life a little bit more, I could bring more calm to even my job. during the day while I was working for the department of foreign affairs and trade on everything from free trade agreements to food security, I would spend the evenings training as a power lifter. One of my favorite memories from when I competed actually is when I set a world record. I remember how scared I was the first time I felt twenty kilos on my back, but in my last competition I had two hundred kilos on my back.

It wasn't the world record that mattered, someone actually broke it not long thereafter, but what mattered was that I learnt you have to take a step by step approach if you want to do well in life.

Whether you want to be a diplomat or if you want to participate in sport, you can't do it in one step. You actually have to think of all the little steps that will get you there so the first thing is 我们必须一步一步来。

But getting there step by step is not enough we have to be persistent on the days that it's hard, we have to make sure that every single day, whether it's attending class or if it's lifting a piece of weight, it doesn't matter if you're not persistent.

But that's also not enough, we have to think about the long term picture we have to take a long term approach if we're going to do well, which means, we have to find balance.

如果我们会成功我们必须找一个平衡点。

It doesn't matter if you can do a lot and not sleep a lot if you can only last five years. You have to look at the long term in whatever you pursue.

But more than anything, you have to stop and ask, why can't I do something?

我觉得最重要的是,我们需要问，难道我做不到吗？我为什么不可以？

I think that's the most important lesson and the reason it is, is because, if we start from the point where we ask, why not me who knows what's were capable of. Why can't a girl who came to Australia as a refugee become a diplomat and represent her country on this very stage? Why can't a girl who was scared and had anxiety become a weight lifter and hold two hundred kilos on her back? Why can't each of us do whatever we set our minds to, as long as we take a step by step approach, as long as we are persistent, as long as we find balance in whatever we pursue and as long as we ask, “why not me”?

- END -

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