No Mud, No Lotus

The Power of Language in Leadership

“To emerge is to take action. It feels powerful. It feels determined.”
Madeline Powell, School Co-Captain

“Ultimately, hardships don’t define us. It’s the fact that we manage to emerge out of them, it’s how we help each other to emerge, that does.”
Angela Yu, School Co-Captain

Since 2015, each consecutive Year 12 Cohort has chosen a single word to encapsulate their theme or focus for the year ahead. This choice is one that is both looked forward to as a rite of passage, but also as a significant leadership responsibility and a key aspect of the value placed on student voice and empowerment.

Acknowledging the power of a common goal, the 2022 Year 12 Cohort has chosen the inspirational word Emerge, following the themes of previous years: Dare, Vision, One, Fearless, Beyond, Golden and Absolutely. These annual mottos serve to bind our School community together, and catalyse a clearly articulated vision and purpose across the Year levels. The Year 12 Common Room features each word with its own unique design; the stamp of the leading cohort of that year.

In their first address to the Senior School in the Induction Assembly, the School Co-Captains, Angela Yu and Madeline (Maddie) Powell, introduced their expectant audience to this year’s word. Keeping their audience in suspense, Angela and Maddie shared a metaphor of the daily emergence of the lotus flower to symbolise how beauty and joy can come from struggle and challenge. The Captains described how the lotus flower emerges from mud every day to bloom into a beautiful flower. Angela explained, “Basically, it starts its life cycle with its roots latched in mud, and every night it submerges itself under the water to re-bloom the next morning.”

Tying this story to one of human resilience and perseverance, Angela said, “without mud, you cannot grow a lotus. The beautiful flower will not emerge.” She went on to encourage the audience to consider how this metaphor could symbolise a “reflection on our times,” noting that “we’ve all struggled through a multitude of things these few years, whether that’s COVID, relationships, self-worth, but the lotus reminds us that we can all come out of this together, and that when we do, we are even more beautiful, not just aesthetically, but on a deeper, more intricate level…no mud, no lotus.”

Angela inspired the girls to see the worth of persisting through challenges saying, “What’s more, the process of coming up from the water and re-blooming every day requires consistency and persistence. There will be times when it will take so much effort to come up for air, to get on top of things, to float above the muddy water. But the lotus manages to do it every day, it doesn’t get easier, but every time you do is a chance for you to emerge as a better version of yourself.” Angela explained “the word ‘Emerge’ captures the process of things, the long, sometimes disheartening, but always worthwhile, process of reaching your goals, your dreams, your future.”

Maddie reiterated that “the word should resonate with each individual that is a part of this collective, regardless of what Year level you are in, what subjects you are doing, the passions that drive you or the difficulties you may face this year.” She stated “whilst we emerge as a collective, we also emerge individually…every day we decide how we are going to emerge – just like the lotus does when it rises above the muddy water to bask its petals in the sunlight.”

Linking to the School Values, Maddie explained “we are all our own, unique lotuses capable of emerging towards our visions and goals, and in control of the way in which we emerge – with Gratitude, Empathy, Integrity, Curiosity and Perseverance. In this way, we are mindful that we are in the same pond – metaphorically – as all of the other lotuses. Acting with kindness at the forefront of our minds, and providing support if one day someone is finding it a bit harder to emerge out of the muddy water.”

Following the Assembly, the students were asked to go to the Nicholas Library windows where the Art Captains had drawn large colourful lotus flowers for the girls to write what they would like to emerge as by the end of this year. Holly Landrigan, the Spirit and Wellbeing Captain also followed the unveiling of the new word with a presentation to Year 9 students where they decorated the Wintergarden windows with their messages of inspiration.

The Emerge theme and the lotus metaphor typifies the traits St Cath’s girls aspire to – to be bold, independent, creative and resilient. As Maddie said of the lotus flower in assembly, “It reminds me of a St Cath’s girl.”