Port Moresby: Self-confidence is vital for advocacy and good decision-making.
This was the powerful message from four lively students from Don Bosco Technological Institute during their appearance on the Chatroom talkback show on Wednesday May 11th as they spoke passionately on the topic ‘Confidence Building essential for students.’
Opening the discussion was Wade Kolam, a 2nd-year Metal Fitting and Machining Technology student, who defined ‘self-confidence’ as believing and trusting one’s own judgment, capabilities and abilities.
He emphasized the importance of the topic saying that all young people need to be empowered to have self-confidence in order to be vocal on issues that are affecting them.
Sharmach Garry, also a 2nd year and Metal Fitting and Machining Technology student, shared the same sentiments as Mr. Kolam, saying that many times, young people often lose confidence in themselves because of negative peer pressure and the fear of being criticized by others for being vocal about certain issues and doing the right thing.
“As young people coming from diverse cultural backgrounds, we shouldn’t let our cultures influence our beliefs as we are part of a global community and we must not let culture become a barrier in our self-confidence”, he said.
Speaking on why it is essential for young people to develop self-confidence, second-year Maintenance Fitting and Machining student, Simon Simin, said that self-confidence for young people is crucial, especially when there is a need for advocacy on issues affecting people in that age group.
He urged young people to have self-confidence in themselves in order to be assertive and be vocal on issues affecting them and not to rely on the older generations to speak on their behalf about issues affecting them because they will not be adequately represented.
“Self-confidence also comes in handy when you are in a leadership position. When you have confidence in yourself, you make good decisions that will benefit those whom you have authority over and they will have trust in you as well”, he said.
Mr. Simin also said that having self-confidence does come with its benefits and gave some examples such as helping young people to achieve their goals, motivating people to persevere to achieve their goals if they do not achieve them in their first attempt and for students, it helps them excel in their studies.
“My self-confidence has helped me a lot when I am not sure of something in class, I always ask questions when I need more clarification on something I’m not too sure about and it brings me so much joy when I get answers to my questions and when I also see that I speak on behalf of others who are too”, he said.
Highlighting the need to have the right amount of self-confidence, Mr. Garry said that it is not good to have overconfidence because it can be considered as pride and pride leads to destruction.
He stressed that overconfidence is bad in the sense that if people are overconfident in themselves, they do not get their desired outcomes and that can crush their morale.
Concluding the discussion was first-year Information Technology student, Hermoine Soweni, who encouraged young people to build their self-confidence at an early age so they can grow up having high self-esteem in order to make good choices in life.
The first speaker, Wade Kolam, also called on the parents and guardians to be involved in their children’s lives to guide and help them build their self-confidence and positively influence others later in life.
Chatroom for May 18th will have the students from De La Salle Secondary School discussing on the topic ‘Importance of Communication in the Digital Era’.
コメント