Commencing with the Valedictory Dinner last Sunday evening, our Year 12 students have enjoyed a week of celebrating their journey as a St Catherine’s School student. Such events have also included the VCE Visual Arts Exhibition, House Public Speaking and the Celebration of Sport Breakfast in addition to attending their final subject lessons and working in close partnerships with teachers through the practice exam process currently under way.

The Valedictory Dinner provided our Year 12 graduating class an opportunity to celebrate the power of shared experience, the value of friendship, achievements made and what excitement lies ahead. It was in January this year, our School Captains, Stephanie Ferrali and Annabelle Motteram, together with the Year 12 cohort, drew together their theme for the year that challenged all our students to be ‘Fearless’. I have no doubt the girls in this cohort will remember this word for years to come.

We celebrated with our Year 12 students and their parents at the annual Valedictory Dinner.

For the Valedictory Dinner, I reflected upon a quote that I have often used with girls starting Year 12:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence liberates others.

– Marianne Williamson, author and lecturer.

I feel the notion of ‘letting our light shine’ and being ‘fearless’ is strongly connected to that of our character. Living a life of good character does not happen by chance, nor does it happen by circumstance. I note the word character has two Cs in it – one stands for ‘choice’ and the other for ‘consequences’. Living a good life happens by choice. It brings to mind our School motto:

Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum – Nothing is great unless it is good.

As our Year 12 girls prepare for their final examinations, I encourage them to reflect on all they have accomplished, the relationships built, all they have learnt and to then lean in and to build the next part of their story.

American journalist Nora Ephron’s words to Wellesley College graduates some 20 years ago encouraged them to be strong, independent women who lead with wisdom, courage and care. Her words: ‘Above all, be the heroine of your own life’ calls for young women to let their ‘light shine’ and to be proud of their achievements, without focussing on our inadequacy or societal demand for perfectionism.

In sharing my closing thoughts with the girls on Sunday evening, I drew on the beautiful lyrics of Leonard Cohen from his song Anthem:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That is how the light gets in.