School isn’t for everyone. Just ask Jerry McGrath.

“I was always deeply uncomfortable in school. I found it very strange that if I tried to leave, they could apprehend me. If I behaved in a way that they didn’t think was agreeable, I could be detained. It’s a very strange kind of prison. And I had to make sense of that.”

If school isn’t for you, don’t reject education.

Find the right education for you, as Jerry has.

“I think that a lot of my work is a response to schooling. Because I felt like it wasn’t being set up to embrace the gifts that I thought I could bring to it. And, so, since leaving formal education, I’ve been committed to trying to create educational environments that don’t feel like that. And for some people, they enjoy school, and I’m not I’m not judging that. But for me, I really struggled.

“My hope is that we can experiment and try other ways that don’t require quite so much control.”

Jerry McGrath is an artist, but also an innovation designer – which, put differently, is someone who tries to help others bring together art and innovation to solve the challenges we face.

And whether your challenge is this course or school or life in general, Jerry wants you to realize a better future can be achieved, for you and for us. But it’s up to us. It requires you.

“Challenge, even when that challenging will cause us distress. It’s not easy to disagree with someone in a position of power because they have the ability to do us harm. But we have a moral responsibility to challenge those people because otherwise no progress will happen.”

And what we challenge? How we challenge? Where and when we work to leave our mark to better what we think ills people, nature and society?

That’s up to each of us. And that’s fine.

Jerry argues, “They need to be choices that we as individuals make, because otherwise we’re just saying, ‘well, I’m doing it because I was told to’ or, ‘I’m doing it because it’s expected’. But that doesn’t really feel like a fully lived life.”

But what matters is that we own our voice and our responsibilities in – to – this life.

“Things like hospitals, things like schools: They do good things. The challenge is we start giving them the work of helping other people. So, if I see someone who is hurt, I say, ‘well, that’s not my responsibility because that’s the hospital’s job.’ Or if I see someone doing something bad, I don’t go and talk to that person. I say, ‘no, that’s the police’s job’. And, so, what happens is we start giving over our opportunities to do good in the world to institutions. And then we lose that opportunity for ourselves.

“And to me, that’s the magic of being alive: Helping other people or building a community that I want to live in. It creates a distance between the intentions we have and our ability to do them.”

Throughout this course, we’ve been trying to help you ask the bigger questions so that you can find the better answers.

We’ve never told you what to think, but we do hope we’ve challenged your assumptions and made you think more critically about the issues we all face.

And we hope Nature Labs has helped you unleash your creativity to heal the divides we see in our society and find that better balance between people and nature.

Mostly though, we hope this has helped you find or further your passion. We hope it’s helped you find or further your voice.

And look, this stuff isn’t easy. I should know.

I was your age when I combined passion and mission to try to do my part to find that better balance between people and nature. And maybe I succeeded in my wish in saving the white Kermode or spirit bear and its biodiversity rich home on Canada’s west coast.

Or maybe I didn’t succeed to the degree I should have, or I hoped to. Maybe, despite my best efforts, I didn’t do enough to ensure that no community or people felt the burden of saving the bear.

As usual, I’ll let you make that call.

But looking back on that journey and understanding what’s led me to this journey – building Nature Labs – I’ll tell you the one thing I know now that I wish I knew back when I started:

Youth is fleeting.

Though I knew that then, I didn’t really know it. Not fully and truly.

For most of us, you’re never more powerful than you are when you’re young. People will give you more time and listen to you more fully than when you’re just another adult in the room. Combine that with time and creativity and energy and optimism, you can do so much, with so little, for so many.

But the window of opportunity? It’s so short. It closes so quickly.

Take advantage of it and build the foundation for the life you want to live and start today on building the world you want to live in.

But! There is, of course, a flip side:

Youth is fleeting.

You only get to be young once. You only get one chance for the adventures and lessons and experiences and fun that can only come from being young.

I always thought I had more time to be young, when I was done trying to leave my mark. And it’s not that it past me by, but I did miss out, I see that now, on so much.

I can’t go back. I don’t get a do over.

And striking that balance between taking full advantage of the power of youth and the joy of being young might only be possible with hindsight. But maybe, just maybe, you can do more – and smile more – than I ever did, if you know now what I wish I knew then.

Which leads to this last point from creative designer and coach, Shawn MacDonell.

“Problem solve. If I go back and tell myself anything, I’d be, like, be a better problem solver.

“Every time I self-doubted myself, I was, like, be a better problem solver. Think. Sit down again and think about it. Don’t just do what everyone else does. Because many times, I was that close to quitting and I’ve seen people fall down that path. They’re like, I’m gonna do it! I’m not gonna get a desk job! I’m gonna follow my passion! And then the first time they don’t make rent or something, they’re like: ‘That’s it! I’m going back! I’m getting a job! I can’t do this! This is for magical unicorn people!’ Which it’s not, by the way.

Shawn passionately urges, “Allow yourself to have time. Allow yourself to have time to ask questions of yourself and to problem solve.

“There are 9 million examples of how to live life all the same way. There are very few examples of how to live life in a very different way. So, find those. Find the different examples. Do it weird. Sell your couch and go to Vancouver.”

Shawn is right.

Be weird. Be different. Be you.

Know you matter – know those around you matter – and know that no matter what path you take, it matters. Your passion – your career, your stewardship – it can shape our world. It will shape our world. And if you choose, it can be a better world – for all life.

But it all starts with you.