Did you ever have to make up your mind?

Did you ever second guess yourself, many of us do and we end up worrying and losing sleep over what we could, or should have done differently. What if every single decision you ever made, was the right one?

Way back when I was a nineteen-year-old, first-year university student, I ran for Student Council on a whim. I never expected to win, but I did, which put me in a difficult position as I had no plans or idea on how to run the office I had just won. I was elected to a new council in a new position. That gave me the freedom to set precedent and create a new path. It also did not give me any precedent to go by.

Remember everything lasts forever on the Internet. Recently one of the decisions I made as a 19-year-old, was brought to lite in an Instagram and Facebook Post and I was surprised by the traction it received. The Post on Instagram was by Simon Fraser Alumni Association and the post said,

We are reposting an item that we shared in one of our first Instagram posts. In this letter addressed to Royce Shook, Simon Fraser Student Society Cultural Director, Martin Luther King Jr. politely declines an offer to speak at SFU in the spring of 1966. Beyond documenting this decision, the letter records in King’s own words his activities at the time to “grapple with the problem of racial injustice that the Negroes still face in this country.”

The letter is located with other correspondence of the SFSS Cultural Director in the Simon Fraser Student Society fonds (F-74).

So back in 1966 just after being elected I decided to reach out to Doctor King and invited him to come to speak to us about issues that were facing his people. Doctor King did not come to speak; was my decision the right one? Yes, it was even though it did not bring the desired results. 

I never doubted the decision to ask, and a few years later when I needed an international speaker to help a society I was running gain traction, I reached out to another famous person and this time they came. The decision to ask gave me the confidence to do it again, with better results. So never second guess your decisions they were the right ones based on what you knew at the time.

Dr. Kings' letter is below.