The Principal's report to Chilton Saint James Old Girls' Association AGM, July 2009
I am my father’s daughter. Walter de Araugo. A very old fashioned name, Wally, but Wal was an old-fashioned man. Wally was born in 1915, during the first world war. Wally grew to manhood through the Great Depression and he joined the Australian Expeditionary Force in 1939 at the start of World War II. As a newly married young man in 1942, he volunteered to become a paratrooper because paratroopers received extra pay - as danger money. He was looking to the future: his young wife, a home to make, a family to start and then support. And this was a man who was dreadfully scared of heights.
I look like my Dad – check out the eyes, nose and mouth. I am built like my Dad. My sense of humour is word based - and it’s drawn from Wally’s sense of humour. My speech is overlaid with the cadences of my Dad’s way of talking and my turns of phrase are derived from his expressions and sayings and quirks. I learnt it at my father’s knee. My father made a big impression on me. That is called influence.
I can recall my first cross country ski trip. It was late spring in what Australians refer to as high country, out behind Mt Kosciusko and the Thredbo ski resort – a region which carries the eroded marks of the last ice age, the impression of ice on rock. Camping above Lake Albina at the head of an old U shaped valley we could, as evening fell, look across the valley to the faces we had skied through the day and see our tracks: the perfectly linked Ss left by Reilly; the side slips and scuffed up crud left by the skidded turns of my brother John; the craters giving away my various face plants. As we ate our dinner we could score our efforts because we had left impressions in the snow. No-one may have noticed that little loss of control at the time, but with the long shadows of evening falling, there was no escaping the highlighted tracks we had each left behind.
Whether we are soldiers or skiers, parents, staff or students, we all make an impression. We leave that impression behind us in the snow of our lives; that impression becomes the track to our character.
As we celebrate the girls achievements of 2008, and as we look forward to what each will achieve in 2009, my question is simply this: what impression are you making? How do you make other people feel? How are you using your God-given talents? Have you danced with abandon, sung and played with joy? Have you grappled with intellectual work diligently and cheerfully? Have you been kind, honest, true, consistent? Have you been striving to become the very best person you can be?
What will you be able to see when you look back across the valley of your life in the next few years, to the tracks you have left behind? What kind of tracks are you leaving behind? What will your legacy be?
The legacy of Geraldine FitzGerald and her successors has been something we have celebrated during 2008 as Chilton turned ninety. Over the past ninety years the continuity of values such as the pursuit of excellence, personal engagement with learning and the importance of service to our neighbour was, for me, the most striking aspect of our birthday celebrations.
The Old Girls’ Association provides us with a constant connection between the past and the present.
The Old Girls’ sponsor the International Women’s Day Year 13 Mentors’ Breakfast and alumnae are regular guest speakers at Awards Assemblies throughout the year. The Adopt an Alumna Scheme was launched at the 90th – a mentoring program which will grow into the future. In addition, the Old Girls provided very practical support of the 2008 School Council Project, the marvelous sculpture Reference Point by Wellington artist Cathryn Monro.
And while we celebrated our past in 2008, we also celebrated our future with the launch of Building Excellence our Centennial Development Plan. The future certainly beckons and it is an exciting one with the first new building gradually emerging on the Waterloo Road frontage of the campus. The Auckland Branch of the Old Girls’ Association has provided welcome financial support to the Centennial Development Fund, as have a number of individual Old Girls. We look forward to a sustained partnership which will permit the school to continue to develop and prosper.
Dr Jillian de Araugo
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