Methmika Premarathne is a student of CHS, year 12B1, currently preparing for their AS
level examination. He came to the UAE in 2018 and since then his life began shifting a lot. He
discovered new things and started understanding, to an extent, how the world he lives in works.
His academic preferences also saw change from Yr7 to 11. As a child he always wanted to be a
doctor. However, he soon lost his fascination in that field and turned to humanities and arts in
year 10. As of late and after years of changing, he sees passion in pursuing music, arts, politics
or even law. This obviously took effort and time for him to figure out, and he talks about this
journey where he wants to do what exactly he wants against societal pressures, and work
towards true happiness - which to him, is devoid of material satisfactions. He hopes with his
speech he is able to help others find this too Methmika Premarathne is a student of CHS, year 12B1, currently preparing for their AS
level examination. He came to the UAE in 2018 and since then his life began shifting a lot. He
discovered new things and started understanding, to an extent, how the world he lives in works.
His academic preferences also saw change from Yr7 to 11. As a child he always wanted to be a
doctor. However, he soon lost his fascination in that field and turned to humanities and arts in
year 10. As of late and after years of changing, he sees passion in pursuing music, arts, politics
or even law. This obviously took effort and time for him to figure out, and he talks about this
journey where he wants to do what exactly he wants against societal pressures, and work
towards true happiness - which to him, is devoid of material satisfactions. He hopes with his
speech he is able to help others find this too This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx