Hold the Moment

Head Prefect Poppy reflects on a chance encounter with an accomplished Wenona Alumna and the wisdom of never wishing time away.

Each week, Wenona's student leaders share their insights with their peers in Assembly.

A few weeks ago at Wenona's International Women's Day Spirit Breakfast, I was fortunate enough to meet the Honourable Justice Houda Younan alongside many other Wenonians of all different ages. Some years ago, Houda too would have attended Assembly every week, and now she sits as a judge on the Federal Court of Australia. To achieve what Houda has, I am sure she has done many hard things, such as making judgements when there really is no right answer, facing injustices herself and working long hours, days and nights, sometimes when she wants to and sometimes when she does not.

Which is why I found it so powerful when the advice she gave me was to "never ever wish time away". Because when you take on something hard, which for Houda now might look like a complex case, but when she was our age would have looked like an exam block, or a high-stakes sporting competition, or making it through those term weeks that are just especially exhausting, it is easy to say "just wait for this week, or month or year to be over".

But what are we waiting for exactly? And as Houda shared, how can we wonder why the time passes so fast if we spend the whole time wishing it away?

Yes, there are events in our lives that we most look forward to, and we must hold on to this excitement to uplift us in hard times. But the moments in between are also precious, and if we wish them away, we will never get them back.

This is especially important to remember in our high school years, a few short years filled with so many firsts and so many lasts.

Just this term, our Year 12 tennis players competed in their last Tildesley tournament, Year 10 students began rehearsals for their last school play and our Year 9 students sat their last NAPLAN exams. Although I cannot vouch for how much they will miss that specific experience, I can speak to how I personally attended my final cadet training this term, an ending I thought I was ready for because it would free up valuable time. But after our final parade, I found myself wishing I could spend just one more Monday afternoon with the cadet community, and had soaked up those moments just a little more when I had them.

It made me realise that even when moments are buried among those busier periods we are tempted to speed through, every school week has something we must cherish, especially because there is never as much time left as we think. This is something my friends and I have definitely realised in Year 12, as we pass our Year 7 teachers in the halls as much taller and surer young women than our 12-year-old selves and are affectionately instructed to "stop growing up!"

There are so many bright things that lie in our futures beyond these gates. So many things to look forward to. But being disconnected from the present while waiting for the future is like searching for the end of a rainbow instead of stepping back to admire how its array of colours lights up the sky. And just like how the end of a rainbow is an illusion that does not actually exist, Houda wisely reminded me that a mindset always fixated on something in the future can never actually be satisfied.

Such wisdom can take many years of life experience to learn. That day, Houda gave me the opportunity to absorb it before even graduating high school, and now I pass it on: seize the day.