Not many cit­i­zens have been for­tu­nate to have been in the pres­ence of Queen Eliz­a­beth II.

But Dar­rion Nar­ine be­lieves he had an even more in­cred­i­ble ho­n­our when he was made mace bear­er.

In 2020, Nar­ine was card­ed to at­tend the an­nu­al Com­mon­wealth Day Ser­vice be­cause of his role as Vice Chair of In­clu­sion and En­gage­ment for the Com­mon­wealth Youth Coun­cil.

But he was on­ly made aware of his ap­point­ment to car­ry the gold­en mace a week be­fore the cer­e­mo­ni­al event.

“I did not ex­pect it, I did not sign up for it or ask for it or any­thing,” Nar­ine told Guardian Me­dia.

Nar­ine re­mains the first and on­ly T&T na­tion­al to date, to be giv­en the role of mace bear­er for Com­mon­wealth Day.

One thing that he ex­pect­ed was the de­tailed prepa­ra­tions and se­cu­ri­ty checks be­fore he took part in the pro­ces­sion that in­clud­ed the Queen and oth­er high-rank­ing mem­bers of the Roy­al fam­i­ly.

“There is a re­hearsal as well pri­or that you go through be­fore ac­tu­al­ly en­gag­ing in the process. You get your brief­ing, se­cu­ri­ty brief­ing and all these things. And then you ar­rive on the day and they set you up, they have you wait­ing and then you go for­ward,” Nar­ine said.

As Nar­ine made his way down the mon­u­men­tal aisle of West­min­ster Abbey that day, there was on­ly one main thought go­ing through his mind– and they were not thoughts of fear or anx­i­ety.

“Fifty years ago, a per­son of colour could have nev­er led the Roy­al fam­i­ly down West­min­is­ter Abbey, so to see the pro­gres­sion that we have made as well with­in Com­mon­wealth cir­cles is some­thing to take no­tice of,” he said.

While Nar­ine said that he will for­ev­er re­mem­ber hav­ing the ho­n­our of meet­ing and in­ter­act­ing with mem­bers of the Roy­al fam­i­ly, in­clud­ing Prince Har­ry, Duke of Sus­sex and the now King Charles III, he be­lieves that his per­son­al ex­pe­ri­ence is sym­bol­ic of some­thing greater.

He said, “We’re over­com­ing or be­gin­ning the process of over­com­ing a cer­tain mind­set that has had pri­or and re­al­ly reach­ing and mov­ing to­wards a new mind­set of stronger col­lab­o­ra­tion, stronger to­geth­er­ness, stronger com­mu­ni­ty and look­ing at a new globe where every­one sort of has the abil­i­ty to walk a path to­wards a bet­ter world as a whole.”