Brave Enough

Upper School Prefect Juliet reflects on how giving things a go, from knitting club to fencing to the euphonium, taught her that the moments that matter most are the ones where you were brave enough to try.
 
Each week, our students share their insights with their peers in Assembly.
 
If there is one thing Year 12 has taught me so far, it’s that everyone you know suddenly becomes a motivational speaker. I’m sure my peers can agree with me when I say that the moment you enter your final year of school, you are bombarded with life advice, well-intentioned clichés and supportive comments from families, older siblings, teachers and occasionally even strangers.
 
Don’t get me wrong, some of it is comforting and I appreciate the support but most of it you politely nod at and don’t feel completely convinced. However, thus far, there has been one comment that has genuinely stayed with me: “Think about how proud your Year 7 self would be if she saw you now.”
 
At first, I laughed it off. For me, at least, my Year 7 self was mostly concerned with getting a locker close to the Garden Cafe and whether I would ever understand how to read a timetable (something I didn’t realise I would relate back to in my final year of school), but the more I thought about it, the more profound the idea became. Not because Year 7 Juliet had a five-year plan of leadership or academic goals mapped out in detail (quite the opposite), but because hopefully this version of me would have been a role model for my Year 7 self.
 
By no means am I calling myself perfect. If anything, this year I have felt more uncertain about my choices than ever. But I have a feeling that thirteen-year-old Juliet would be proud of my effort and how giving things a go over the last five years somehow led me to where I am now.
 
Success rarely follows a neat or predictable path, and though your role models may appear perfect on the surface, the one constant in these achievements is effort - trying your best. If the first five weeks of this term have taught me anything, it’s that being the smartest or most ambitious person in the room is simply not enough if you are not prepared to try.
 
I have a long-running joke with my family that no one has tried as many co-curriculars as me. Name a sport or club and trust me, at one point or another, I gave it a go. And even though knitting club didn’t work out and my fencing career didn’t take off and I can no longer read music despite playing the euphonium for three years in Wind Symphony, I take pride in knowing that despite my shortcomings in these domains, at least I tried.
 
So as you move forward, whether that’s through this year or for some of us, beyond school entirely, remember, you have every reason to be proud of yourself if you’ve tried your best. Because one day, when you only have seven months left of school and you’re thinking about your Year 7 self, you’ll realise the moments which stand out are the ones where you were brave enough to try.