How to overcome your education

‘How to overcome education.’ It’s quite sad to have to write that, isn’t it? But unfortunately with the way our system is built today, often young people are faced with that challenge.

We hear stories like it all the time, young people who are essentially forced with giving up their lives during an exam year: no more sports, no music, or something which I find most upsetting - no creativity. Now before I go ahead and say anything, I have so much appreciation for our education system. We are blessed in this country to be provided with free, quality, diverse education when so many all over the world are deprived of it. That being said, for teenagers who want to break from the mold, it can represent an obstacle rather than a tool.

Last month I spoke at TEDxTeen to portray a belief of mine that everyone has the potential inside them to change the world from inside their bedroom, in their pyjamas. It was an incredible experience, but what really stood out to me is that every young person who approached me after my talk asked the same question: “How did you manage to do this and balance school at the same time?”

Upon reflection, this question is quite upsetting. There in front of me I saw dedicated, passionate young people who actually cared about making a difference, who wanted to get involved, and they felt like school was holding them back. Education is a tool that should empower young people, not get in the way of their dreams and ambitions. Before me I saw boundless potential going to waste because young people felt like they couldn’t manage both education and innovation in their schedule.

But why is it so essential that young people innovate? Because, put simply, we have something which older people do not: naivety. We are brave enough to try the most crazy ideas because we haven’t yet learned about all the reasons why it might not work. And sometimes that pays off, because sometimes those ideas work.

So for all those kids who have an idea they really want to pursue, but can’t think of a way to figure out the balance between school and work, I have one piece of advice for you:

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

From personal experience and from speaking to my friends, most students would be finished studying and homework by 9pm at the latest, and goes to bed at approximately 11pm. That gives you two hours with which to get stuff done. Now I don’t mean you should use all that time, or you’d probably go insane (and I wouldn’t blame you). But if you give over 20 minutes of that time, three nights a week, that adds up to an hour per week. Progress will be slow, but it takes hundreds of nights to become an overnight success. And soon you’ll see that begin to pay off. It’s all about baby steps in the right direction. Take inspiration from your everyday life, from friends, family and school. The education system doesn't give us the scope to apply what we learn to our everyday life, but there's nothing to stop us doing that ourselves and finding ways to make life better for everyone.

Take that first bite of the elephant, and wait to see where it takes you. But one final tip: when you overcome your education, don't forget what you learned in school.

More about me than you ever, ever will want to know.

Roll up, roll up! Time to learn some useless facts about my life for the 'Liebster Award' that, let's face it, nobody actually wants to know. Cheers Harry for the nomination, because lets face it, as a Leaving Certificate student running two startups, I have loads of time on my hands. Well, lets begin, shall we?

How would you describe yourself using only 3 words?

Determined, Enthusiastic and Blessed. Not in the holy way, in the 'I am so lucky and I cannot be more grateful for all of the incredible opportunities I've had'.

If given €1,000,000 for only 24 hours, what would you do with it?

Well I guess that depends. I mean, I don't want to get super deep here, but does everything I buy with it disappear after 24 hours too? If so, I'd probably spend some of it on a cool experience, like skydiving or something, donate €100,000 to the Chernobyl Children's project for their heart operations program (and make sure operations happened within the 24 hours), give a large amount to the Malala Fund (also warning them to spend it within 24 hours), and I'd also more than likely buy a horse. Not that I don't love my pony but he's getting a bit small. I think I'd probably buy a round-the-world plane ticket (if that sort of thing exists) so I could see all my friends.

What’s your favourite TV Series?

Watching TV is a toughie for me given the fact that I barely fit in sleep. However, when I have time, I watch 'The Office' on Netflix (you can get it dubbed in French, so it counts as study, kinda).

IOS or Android? Why?

IOS for sure. I just feel like it's significantly more intuitive. Also I'm learning to code for IOS on top of everything else, so I'm probably a little biased.

Supposen, supposen, the old man got frozen, how many men got frozen?

How many men got frozen ever? During what time period? Where? What even are the criteria for someone to be classified as 'frozen'? I guess I should let it go ;) See what I did there?

What is your favourite colour?

Probably green. Not like a bright, artificial green, but the mix of all the different shades you see when you're flying over Ireland.

What drink do you order in Starbucks?

Yeah, because with all the free time I have I routinely visit Starbucks. Anytime I do make it in to the single establishment we have in Cork I usually get tea - they don't take kindly to my asking for a cup of milk.

Favourite word?

That's so tough, I don't think I can choose one. If I had to pick one I'd say pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

Favourite Book?
'Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 steps to a successful startup' by Bill Aulet. Or possible Harry Potter.

How many hours old are you?
I've just done 2 hours of maths, I'm nable sorry. When I turn 18 in December I will be 157710.

Favourite food?
I'm an extremely fussy eater unfortunately. I love basically any type of fruit, and any type of meat. Not a food, but I love milk. And I have this weird reluctance to eat of green food - yes, I know my favourite colour is green but I'm a mass of contradictions. If a food is brown, red, yellow or similar I will more than likely eat it.

My nominations go to:
1) Aoife Kearins
2) Christine Costello
3) Joana Baptista

You guys now have the pleasure of answering my questions before nominating three more bloggers to answer questions of your own:
1) If you had 3 days to live, what would you do first and why?
2) What's your last played song on itunes/spotify?
3) What's your favourite memory from the Outbox House?
4) If you had to choose one quality in a business partner what would it be?
5) Ever been stung by a wasp?
6) Guacamole or Salsa?
7) Richard Branson or Elon Musk?
8) Where was your favourite holiday?
9) What's your earliest memory?
10) If you could have any animal as a pet (no cruelty cause this is imaginary) what would it be?


Okay so that's me done, and now I have to go do more study. On a side note, look out for Project Zilkr at Web Summit. There's a lot of news coming out in the coming weeks and I'm super excited to share our progress with everyone.

Mental Health: Priority 1

If this helps one person, even just one, it'll be worth it.

The human brain is extraordinary in it's ability to feel emotion. What are actually little electric pulses and signals inside our head can trick us into experiencing feelings such as love, jealousy or sadness. Of course, it doesn't feel that way when you are experiencing these emotions, because often the circumstances in which the particularly strong ones occur are so overwhelming, so in your face, that you can't focus on anything other than that feeling, be it of happiness, fear, depression or otherwise.

Mental health, particularly in young people, certainly isn't taboo in today's society. In fact, it shows how we have progressed in that it is almost a hot topic in education and in the media, an example of which can be seen in the recent 'repost your first profile picture and donate' online campaign. Personally, however, all this talk just seems like white noise to me. Yes, we have established that mental health issues are a growing problem, steadily increasing as a result of factors like cyber bullying, but aside from discussing the fact that there is a problem, there is a notable shortage of practical and pragmatic advice on what you can do to protect yourself when such issues affect you. You get the usual spiel of 'go to someone you trust,' and 'don't listen to them,' but look beyond that and what is there? A void.

Let's face it, we've all been in that position at least once. Nowadays, we live our lives on social media, and hurtful words pass easier through people's fingertips than through their mouths. It's usually unexpected: you're scrolling through Twitter or Facebook, and boom, something horrid about you jumps out from the page and punches you in the gut. I'm fortunate enough to say that I haven't experienced this too often, but recently an article about our Google Science Fair winning project was posted online, and many of the comments gave me a sharp reminder of the feeling. Plot twist- I'm actually not going to talk about those comments, I'm going to talk about how I dealt with them. When I recounted a few particularly bad ones to a friend, she asked how I was able to discuss them with a smile, and when I explained, she suggested I share the details on here. So here goes:

Touch Base

First of all, take the voice inside your head (the voice you think with) and conjure it into a person, a mini version of you. Now walk that person into an imaginary room and lock the door. Leave all the negativity, leave the world in general outside: yes they won't go away but we'll deal with them later. Whilst you're in there, in the metaphorical quiet of your private room, ask yourself a few questions: 'Am I perfect?' 'No.' 'Does it matter?' 'No.' 'Am I breathing, do I have a heartbeat?' If yes, then you are a miracle.

It sounds a little goofy I know, but sometimes it helps to remind yourself that you still have the fundamentals of life inside you, and that's always something to go on. Next, try and think of something that makes you happy. It might take a while to find it, but trust me, you will. For me it's my friends, I say their names, I think of the last time they made me laugh. Now focus on that little ball of positivity, and imagine it's like a fire that was just lit in that virtual room which is warming that little person from the inside out.

Anchor Down

Okay, now when you're ready, you're going to unlock the door and leave the room. You've been refreshed, and you're strong enough to make sure the negativity waiting outside doesn't rush in like flood water and extinguish that fire you've lit inside. With your mind feeling a little more composed, it's time to check in with the rest of your body. Do you have any aches or pains, a bruise which won't go away? Find them and focus your attention on them, on that physical feeling.

If you're standing, feel the contact your feet are making with the ground, feel how strong it is, how you are being kept anchored to the earth by that force called gravity, but also by the fact that you are a living, breathing, human being, you exist, you take up space, you have mass, you matter (sneaky pun there for any physics geeks). If you're sitting, do the same, maybe grab the arm of a chair and squeeze it tight, just to remind yourself that you are a physical being, and those wifi signals that sent you your Twitter/Facebook feed? Yeah, they most certainly aren't.

Let it Go

So to recap, you've filled yourself with positivity and reminded yourself about the physical world around you, and anchored yourself to the ground. Now with that anchor in mind (it helps if you have something to hold onto), you can face that negativity again. But this time, you're the big person in this situation, steadily fixed to the ground, and that negativity is light, like a helium balloon. So light in fact, that it might just fly away, and you'll willingly let it go.

It doesn't even have to leave completely: the point is, it isn't weighing you down anymore. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that every time someone wrongs you or hurts you that you should just forget about it- you can simply use the above to help lessen, or even completely rid yourself of, the feelings surrounding it, because those feelings won't affect anybody but you, and they won't help your situation. Realistically, whilst hurtful comments do have the ability to get inside your head, that's your space, and it is within your capabilities to push them back about again. You control your headspace, nobody else. Keep yourself anchored to the ground and that's all you need. These feelings will come and go, but in your life, you are the one thing that, will without end, be constant.