May 28th, 2025

I must have been about 11 years old, sat crossed legged on the squeaky wooden polished floor of my primary school. The sun streamed down into the hall and at the front of the assembly stood our gigantically tall headmaster, Mr Jaques.

“Today is the first day of the rest of your life” he said, looking directly at me, as if intuiting that this message was one I needed to hold on to. I do not remember the content of the assembly or the rest of the morning’s lessons but that one sentence stuck with me. Something I have repeated to myself many times in moments of realisation. Every time I have reinvented myself (which has been a few times!) I have repeated this mantra. Each time I have found myself engulfed by fire and
self-destruction I remember his words.
Unity has taught me that we are re-born in literally every single second. I ALWAYS have an opportunity to take a different path, to act from love, to rebirth and reinvent myself.
Do I want to be the same person at 50 as I was in my twenties? Hell no. My 20-year-old self thought chicken nuggets
​5 nights a week and Red Bull for breakfast was a good idea! I am grateful for learning. Grateful for being able to decide who I want to be in any given moment. Grateful even for getting old(er).
What will you do today? With the first day of the rest of your life?
Stefanie Bridges
Unity administrator
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