Your life is made up of teams but you may not know it. The first team in life is your family: the ones that look after you and keep you alive for your first few years even if it’s less of a team and more of a reliance; it becomes a team when you start looking after and caring for each other. Your next team will be your mates at school who build you up and sometimes knock you down or as I like to call it “loving character building”. Then it’s the teachers that you work with who help you become successful in life. Then you might be part of a team in a professional environment, then maybe your own family team later in life. My point is that your life is made up of teams.
But let me put this to you. What if I told you there is an “I” in “team”? Here’s my theory. In a world so focussed on individuality and personal bests, it’s really your teams that help you get there. I mean, who are the most successful solo acts in music? Taylor Swift? Drake? Michael Jackson? With over 340-million album sales, he’s considered one of the most successful solo acts in history. His music is iconic for its incredible vocal talent and, aside from a few collaborations, it’s all him on the records, right? Well no. Michael Jackson grew up in a band with his family called the Jackson 5 who introduced him to music and fuelled his solo career later with support and motivation.
Teamwork is essential in life and makes you who you are. Because, and here’s the paradox, the more you learn to work with others, the better you become when you’re on your own. Your teachers will teach you the content, your family will encourage you to revise, and your friends will cram with you five minutes before the exam but, in the end, it’s you sitting in the Undercroft staring at the paper, hoping that the last question isn’t on trigonometry.
You can achieve a lot in a team but it only takes one person to make a difference. It only took Rosa Parks to take a seat on the bus to change history. Work in a team, collaborate, listen to others, but see what you can do.
Ollie Southwell
Senior Prefect