SCHOOL years are among some of the most difficult for certain youths, especially for those who may lack self-esteem and have an introverted personality. No one knows this better than Raul Emmanuel Ledra! What helped him cope with the blues? Improving his grades and achieving his goals. 

Raul, now 25, was born to Mr and Mrs David and Devika Ledra at La Penitence in Georgetown. Both are hard-working individuals who have helped to instill certain values in Raul and his four brothers Mark, Ryan, Paul and Joel.
He attended Selman Fraser Nursery School before pressing on to West Ruimveldt Primary, and St. Joseph High. After writing the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams, he did private courses in Business Management at Cacique Inc. Raul would have spent three months at the University of Guyana but decided to quit after he found it a struggle to balance both work and studying.
Raul came off with excellent CXC grades, obtaining six distinctions, a Grade One, and a Grade Two. For this, he was the recipient of six awards for the distinctions; one that represented the highest grade in Electrical and Electronic Technology in the school; and the eighth one for being the best graduating student in business.
To be such a high achiever, though, Raul had to set specific goals. In fact, there was hardly anything, including his books that excited him or captured his attention. “Up until fourth form, I was never interested in… life…. really. I was always one of those students in class who would like to be at the back, unnoticed, and not being known by the class and the teachers. I was very reserved,” he related.
In fourth form, he decided that it was time for a change. “In fourth form, I decided I wanted that to change. I used to hear about students who got tons of awards; going on and off the stage. I guess I wanted to be like that. I wanted to be known and I guess that’s what motivated me to study.”
He recalled how his low self-esteem and the teasing he received from fellow classmates contributed to his introverted personality. However, he had a different outlook on life due to his accomplishments at CXC. “I began to feel confident in my abilities and I started to feel more comfortable about myself and to move away from that kind of personality.”

DREAM JOBS

Raul always wanted to work at a bank and with grades as good as his, he soon secured a place at the New Building Society. “This was my first job and the fact that I got through further boosted my confidence. It was a job that I really liked.” He spent two years there as a Customer Services Representative.
After the two years, he started working at Scotia Bank. “Before reaching to NBS, the bank that I wanted to work at was Scotia Bank. I had applied there but I didn’t get it. I got NBS but I still wanted to go to Scotia, so I kept trying. I eventually got an interview and was successful. Again I had one of my dreams realised.”
Raul would eventually decide that he didn’t want to stick with Scotia Bank either. “Currently, I am doing something that I thought about since I was in school and before I had the dream of working in a bank. I used to help out my classmates with school work and because of that, a desire to become a teacher started to develop in me. I had once envisioned it but I just never pursed it.”
Today, it is the very thing that Raul is doing for work! “I didn’t realise this is probably what I wanted to do all along. I enjoy this more. I am a home tutor, so I actually go to persons home, sit with them one on one and help them when it comes to CXC Maths. I have always been interested in helping people and this is what I am doing.”

A VALUABLE LESSON

It would be hard to digest that someone like Raul would have to repeat a form. But he did. Form Two. And for what reason? A girl. “She was in Form One when I was in Form Two. I saw her and had fallen head over heels and I wanted to ‘repeat’ so that we could have been together,” he laughed.
As innocent and cute as it may sound, Raul deeply regrets his actions. “I did that out of blind emotion, infatuation. It didn’t even turn out that I got to be in same class with her. So I learnt not to act on mere emotions when it comes to certain things, but to really think what the consequences would be. I didn’t really think of how it would affect my parents. They would have had to find another year of finance to support me. I would have just wasted a year of my life I would say,” he said.
Raul purposely failed his exams just so that he would not move forward. “I learned a valuable lesson there to really think about my actions and what the consequences would be.”
Furthermore, Raul felt hurt as he thought about what he had put his parents through. “I felt as though I failed them and let them down. My motivating force for getting serious with my books was mainly because of that. I wanted to do something that would make them feel good. So it started out as that and that was enough to motivate me to give up certain thing and develop a certain schedule. In time I found that I started to improve.”
Consequently, Raul’s advice to youths in school is nothing but the following: “During that period in school, most times we are not going to think about the consequences of the decisions we make. But we must really stop and think about the decisions we are going to make because it really is going to affect our lives down the road.”
By Telesha Ramnarine