P.S. Make sure you’d don’t tell anyone how you got here (you can give people hints to help them if they ask, but a big part of the journey is figuring things out).

Congratulations! You’ve found the third and final part of the welcome email treasure hunt series!

Your reward is not just this picture of us with our boys (hats and cats, is there a better combination?), but also a story.

Connection?

Two people grew up in two shockingly similar circumstances. One of them, Frank, only a few streets away from the other, Chris.

They both went to their local school. A school that seemed to pump out students with academically superior grades and a good general life headstart. It was one of those schools that you could imagine people reading in a resume and thinking “ah yes, this seems like a good candidate, if they went there, they must be of good breeding and a generally good egg”.

Both Frank and Chris cared deeply about their parents, they knew how hard their parents worked to make it possible for them to go to this fancy school and live in the nice suburb that they lived in. Even when they were young, they were remarkably clued in.

Some of the kids pranced around the school like they owned the place, like Errol. Oh Errol… His entire brain had perhaps only two brain cells that could functionally communicate, but his parents were household names amongst anyone in the field of Law and Errol’s family bank accounts had plenty to show for it.

Frank and Chris knew that their parents weren’t like that. Their parents bled for them to have the money to be able to afford everything they did. Both of them worked stressful jobs, often stayed overtime and they moved through the world as if carrying its weight on their shoulders.

Both Frank and Chris, one street apart, had the exact same thought, at the exact same time.

“I’m going to make my parents proud and show them that it was all worth it”.

Frank and Chris were both especially gifted when it came to language studies and humanities. It was believed that Chris could read an entire book in the time it took someone else to finish a cup of coffee. Many regarded Frank as a human encyclopedia due to his knowledge of random historical facts. In class, they both applied themselves, making sure to always get their homework done, and even do the extra reading.

But, beyond this, is where the lives of Frank and Chris differed.

Frank would go that little bit further, do that little bit more, every time. He would study just that little bit longer and work that little bit harder. Which meant that Chris started to fall, consistently, into being the academic runner-up.

Chris was eager to excel in the unspoken rivalry of grades between himself and Frank, even though he’d never show it. Despite that, he also had a passion for basketball and enjoyed spending time with his fellow players after school.

Chris went to team practice on Monday and Wednesday nights and played basketball games on Fridays. He wasn’t the star player, but he held his own each game and had the best time playing. Basketball games were often the absolute highlight of his week. The smell of sweat, the squeaks of the sneakers on the tarmac, Errol inevitably falling over his sneakers again and the sunburn on the tops of his shoulders after a game in the middle of Summer.

But Monday and Wednesday nights, as well as Fridays, were the days Frank was getting ahead, leaving Chris behind. Frank started to really lean into his position as the class literary genius, while Chris started to become more of a “quiet achiever”, that still did relatively well albeit not as well as Frank.

The years passed and both Frank and Chris seemed to settle more and more into their roles, as people often do. Frank was the brainiac and Chris was just an “average” guy who was pretty okay at school stuff and basketball.

Frank’s parents sometimes asked him why he didn’t hang out with friends as often or go to parties. Frank would shrug them off saying those things were a waste of time. He knew that he’d win out in the end.

Chris’s parents sometimes asked him why he didn’t study harder, he used to be in competition for the top spot! Chris shrugged them off saying that he’s still doing pretty well and that he still wants to “have a life”, unlike Frank.

Connection!

The final year of school delivered exactly the expected results that you’d think it would.

Frank was the top of the year, undisputed, especially in subjects like literature, history and social sciences. Chris did receive a highly commended award and went up with the basketball team to get a trophy as the team had come fourth in the overall inter-school competition.

However, Frank was the star. He was placed, without question, into the exact course that he had applied for in university. Law. He knew he was going to absolutely smash it too.

Chris had to do a bit more work and apply for some “athlete’s entry scheme” points to secure his place, and began by being waitlisted before being offered a spot. But, astonishingly, ended up gaining a place in the exact same course as Frank! Chris didn’t feel quite as ready for things as Frank, after all, he’d barely gotten in on the skin of his teeth.

When university began, for the first few weeks it seemed like everything was a blank canvas and both Frank and Chris could sculpt their identities from scratch. Frank tried getting a bit more involved in extra curricula activities and Chris was a bit more diligent in his studies…

But old habits die hard.

Within a couple of months, they fell back into their old ways.

Frank had established himself in the introductory law classes by gaining higher marks than the others and was feeling pretty good about the fact that he could very well be just as high of an achiever in university as he was in school.

Chris had found himself on the bench of the university basketball team, which had introduced him to Harry, a guy from one of the older years who volunteered for the Revue crew helping with the lighting for the show production. Harry talked Chris into joining the Revue crew too because there were lots of “hot chicks” who hung around at Revue parties. Once again, Chris flourished as a social butterfly.

Time kept scuttling past, as it has the annoying habit of doing. Chris got promoted to the starting line-up of the basketball squad during some intense interstate competitions, leading to some moments where he barely scraped a pass in classes.

During some months, Frank was particularly distraught because he felt like he was caught in an endless routine of study, assignment, exam, study, assignment, exam.

There were times Chris asked himself “do I even really want to do Law?”, and there were times Frank asked himself “How long can I keep doing this before I completely burn out?”.

Nothing overly dramatic happened. Frank pushed through justifying his hard work as being “worth it” for the final outcome that he knew he would get. Chris pushed through despite feeling like he was easily just another sheep in the middle of the herd.

After the final year of Law, things didn’t quite go as you’d expect.

Everyone was applying for graduate positions. Frank’s report card looked more pristine than an untouched slice of the Amazon forest. Chris’s report card was, well, okay I suppose.

Chris received an email.

The email was from Harry.

Harry had graduated a couple of years earlier and was working for a pretty well known Law firm… The one that Errol’s parents were now established partners at. Harry told his superiors about Chris and they were interested in interviewing him for a role. They’d heard of Chris before from Errol’s parents.

Errol actually heard about Harry’s proposal too and encouraged it. Errol had somehow gotten his two brain cells to perform well enough together that he was running a successful bakery, which his parents no doubt helped him open. Errol and Harry were keen to have another baller to practice with after work.

By the time the year had finished, Frank was offered a place as one of 20 graduates who would be battling it out for a spot in one of the larger law firms, desperately trying not to burn out after some 20 years of endless study. Frank was now one of 20 Franks, 20 people just like him, and the next year was going to be tough.

Chris on the other hand was offered a cosy, secure role working with his friend Harry, building even more connections through their regular basketball games, and a discount on freshly baked pretzels from his baker friend Errol.

Connection.

Frank and Chris are fictional characters, but this story is based on true events. True events that I’m sure all of us have experienced.

There’s a lot of weight to the phrase “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. When you’re younger, you feel it less… As you get older, you feel it more and more.

Connection. True, real, genuine connection, matters. Not just for quality of life either, but for success in your goals and ambitions too.

Sometimes, you don’t see that until it’s far too late.

P.S. Talking about seeing things… Were you able to make out the two hidden images in the stereograms above? (Don’t worry, Pat still can’t see them either)