Introduction

Recently, I read a very interesting short story about a boy who asked his father to tell him what the secret of life was. The Father promised the boy that he would reveal the secret of life on his fifteenth birthday. Sure enough, on his fifteenth birthday the boy asked his father to tell him what the secret of life was and the father replied, ‘the cow does not give us milk.’ The boy was confused and asked the father to explain what he meant by such a statement, and the father said, ‘The cow does not give us milk, we need to feed it to grow and when the time is right we need to milk it. Milking a cow takes a lot of patience, preparation and work but in the end we will have our bucket of milk. So no, the cow does not give us milk, we need to milk the cow for it.’

I have to say that this short story made me stop and think of the many times we expected things to happen without trying to put the effort into making the thing we desire becoming a success. Unfortunately, this has become the trap of our modern society and people expect to succeed without putting in the hard work which goes hand in hand with every success story. The same thing goes with studying and aiming to achieve one’s goals in life. Attending lectures is only one very small fraction of the whole holistic experience. One needs to study, research and continue to develop what was introduced to class. Technology has made it so easy for our generation to find the short cuts to their studies, AI is the main culprit for all the short cuts and although it can be a very useful tool to students, using it wrongly or abusing its benefits will only result in one missing out on the opportunity to continue to grow and develop his or her skills, and becoming a better person than what they were before the start of their chosen pathway.

Putting in the hours to study and write assignments will help one to develop new ideas and become more aware of who they are, how to improve themselves and how to challenge ideas with new concepts. Consequently, we all need to remember the secret of life, ‘the cow does not give us milk, we need to milk it to get the milk we want and need.’

Wishing all our students a good summer break and here’s to another year full of challenges which will help us grow individually and as an SBM team.

Pauline Fenech - Dean