Age no bar for achievement

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The votes are in and focus, dedication, parental support and hard work have been declared the winners. While teens worldwide are being lauded for their achievements across fields, teens in India are very clear about just what qualities are needed to get to the top. And if their achievements are any indication, then they certainly are on the right track.
Says SYBA student Priya Adivarekar, who has been seen on several dance reality shows, “You have to be focused and dedicated. If you aren’t, there’s always someone else who is ready to invade your space and you can end up losing great opportunities.”
Leroy Jacinto juggles singing and playing the guitar for his band Legally Retarded with the coursework for his TYBCom classes. But the demands on his time certainly don’t pall on this teenager. “You have to be dedicated to get somewhere,” says Leroy, adding that having a musical family has been hugely beneficial: “My parents have served as my inspiration.”
Parental support becomes especially important when teens function without a personal guide or coach. Priya recounts, “The BBC was shooting a documentary on dance forms in India for which they shot my performances for a week. I had no trainer or instructor, but I’ve been choreographing my own dances from the age of six.”
Where even adults are stumped by impediments, teens are opting to work through them. Leroy battled extreme anxiety during his first stage performance to become a seasoned performer. Priya has earned compliments from actor Hrithik Roshan for the way she emotes while performing. And 19-year-old Sakshi Bhandari had to work past the scepticism of her professors to make a mark in her mass media course.
Sakshi says, “I don’t claim to be brilliant, but I am a very hard worker and this helped me become a topper. In my first year, I scored only 64 per cent. A professor told me I was not cut out for the mass media course. But after the change in my academic performance, the same professor says I am ready to face the industry. For me, it proved whether or not I was intelligent — I could make myself smarter by being aware of what was happening around me.”
“It’s no use being brilliant if you take it for granted,” says Sakshi. “That is the hallmark of successful people.”