Opening HS Assembly Address

Excerpt from Opening Whole High School Assembly 21 August

The bigger questions, as always, when we begin a year, are how should we think about it? How should we approach it? How should we feel about it?

These are tough questions to answer; because for some of you it’s your 13th year at UWCSEA; for others, you have not even arrived on Campus.  Some of you are beginning your final 9 months of schooling ever; some have four years ahead of you. So the answers are different for us all.  It might be easy to forget this, as we’re not altogether in one hall, sitting with each other as we get the same message , and are forcibly reminded that there are well over 1000 of us doing the same thing. But perhaps at the moment canteen is reminder enough that we’re a big school, and we are all in this together.

Source

I won’t pretend that it will be an easy year; like much of the world we are wrestling with Covid-related issues.  So I want to name some of the issues you already know: We cannot hold assemblies; trips are off for this term; service and activities will be curtailed; our freedom around campus is diminished; we can’t even sit closely. Some students remain remote.

These are important things, and I do not want to diminish them; it’s critical that we pay attention to them.  But at the same time it’s also critical that we do not pay attention to only these issues, to the present. A key part of the human condition is knowing when to focus on the immediate, and knowing when to step back and take the big picture.  Few other animals can do that, but we can. It’s a gift.  And I’d like us to think about the big picture of our lives for a bit. It helps, as we face uncertain times ahead.

In the big picture, over the coming few years:

• You’ll learn a great deal and you’ll grow more independent 
• You’ll make great friends
• You’ll have some memorable successes
• You’ll make mistakes, learn from some of them; repeat some of them
• You’ll have disappointments, and you’ll get over them
• From the successes and from the disappointments, you’ll make wonderful memories that you’ll never forget
• You’ll finish school (perhaps here; perhaps somewhere else)
• You’ll go onto your next steps wherever that it (perhaps not entirely the place you thought, but it’ll work out, it always does)
• You’ll create and shape your own life, as you choose to

These facts are always true. So while the short-term issues are significant, the big picture is as it has always been, covid or no covid. This is the human condition; and you know, it’s as true for you as it is for me. We’re all making it up as we go - however confident and assured everyone else may look; it’s the same for all of us.  Let’s enjoy the ride together.

I am incredibly excited to see you growing up with so many great things ahead of you; and I suggest that we all make an effort to retain this big picture.

And once we have the big picture, the smaller picture, 2020, finds its place. I wonder what we’ll call 2020 in future - the covid year? The remote learning year? The year we spent so much time with our families? The lost year? The year we learnt what’s really important? Perhaps a bit of each; or perhaps after a few years it won’t appear to be such a big thing.

We simply don't know. But we do know one thing for sure. That 2020, with all the good and the bad, will pass.  Just like 2012, or 2017 did.  Nothing is permanent; and whatever this year brings, it will soon be over and we'll be on to the next thing, just as we have been so many times before.  So we just need to make the most of it while it’s here. As always.

And I think that’s what you have been doing. In my lessons and across HS this week, I saw interest, engagement and focus; smiles, laughter, kindness and connection. In other words, much is the same. You have wonderful friends; you have dedicated and talented teachers.   So as always, it’s within our power to make it a great year. A year of caring, kindness, and great experiences.

Have a great year.