Farewell Class of 2022
Last week, Hume Anglican Grammar farewelled the graduating class of 2022 at a number of end-of-year celebrations.
We congratulate and acknowledge our Year 12 students for their commitment and contributions to our school community over the last 13 years. We are immensely proud of their achievements and wish them all the best in their upcoming exams.
During the final Farewell Assembly, I had the opportunity to address the group, and I share with you my sentiments below.
So, Class of 2022, the time has come for the School to say its farewell. Your school days as a student at Hume Anglican Grammar have now come to a close and we celebrate your time at this special Farewell Assembly. This is just one of the many events held these last two days to commemorate your time at Hume, I hope you have enjoyed these activities. We have, honouring each and every one of your contributions to the School.
After this ceremony, there remains one last event - the Guard of Honour. I feel this is a most fitting final farewell, not because every student and every staff member of the Mt Ridley campus will be there just for you, to applaud you as you pass by, but for the symbolism of the event. I hope the significance of walking the guard of honour is appreciated.
You will start this journey at the heart of the School and surrounded by Preps - the youngest children and newest to Hume. You all commenced your school journey as a 5-year-old in Prep, whether it be here or another school, so it’s appropriate you start the walk with them. From there you will make your way past the different year levels and as you progress two things will happen; the year levels will climb, and you will get closer to the boundary where the school finishes and the outside world commences. The symbolism of this journey is not a complex one, but a poignant illustration of your passage. Your 13-year schooling journey where you started as a 5 year old, and now conclude as an 18-year old, will be signified by a 200-metre walk that will take less than 15 minutes. When you look at it that way, it does not seem significant, but I can assure you, it is!
As you walk the path, and as the students increase in age and grow in size, each group may be somehow important to you. For example, as you pass the Year 3s, you may recall your first camp, for some this would have been the first time spent overnight away from family. The Year 7 group may remind you of the commencement of the secondary schooling phase of your life, and for many their first year at Hume. The last group you will encounter will be the Year 11s, maybe you will remember standing in that same location only 12 months ago seeing off the 2021 cohort.
As you make the walk, there may be some mixed emotions. You will be pulled from a sense of joy and exhilaration that you have ‘made it’, to perhaps some sadness that you leave behind something so familiar, with possible trepidation or uncertainty to what lies beyond?
Importantly, at the end you will find yourselves at the school gates. How you interpret the symbolism of being led to the gates may be different for each. I do not see the gates as a point of exit from one thing, or even entry to another. I see it as a point of transition, where you move from one phase, or stage, of your lives to another. Most importantly, the gates symbolise a move towards the future. One I hope the School has played a significant part in preparing you. You are a wiser, more accomplished and a more complete person.
On behalf of the School, I hope each of you know how proud we are of you. We are delighted by your accomplishments and wish you well. Soon you will embark upon your examinations, and shortly thereafter receive results, followed by offers from universities for those who wish further study. However, know that the results you receive, and any decisions then made, neither define nor limit you. Your pathway in life should not be determined by exam results or university offers. Most people’s lives bear witness to the fact that how we fare at school is not necessarily how we fare in life.
So, what really matters, what really counts, is not your success at school. But how you live your life each day. It is the choices you make as a graduate from Hume Anglican Grammar that counts.
Congratulations ‘Class of 2022'.
