Fr Jun Jun, Fr Shibo, Parents, Staff, friends and most importantly Year 12’s.

In a short while each of you will receive your 2020 Catholic College Wodonga Senior Jumper. This is the final step in acknowledging to our community that each of you are our Year 12 students for 2020. I have no doubt that tomorrow, even if it the temperature is above 40 degrees all of you will wear your jumper, many of you will wear it all day.

Your jumper will be one of your lasting memories of your time with us at Catholic College Wodonga. Your jumper will be with you long after your final days at Catholic College Wodonga. Given this, my simple question to each of you is,

“What will your jumper signify?”

Rather than say it reminds you of your time in the Mercy Centre, Pipes’ Maths class, Catholic College days or our Year 12 retreat at Falls Creek, I am challenging you to consider “What does the jumper signify about you as the person, who will wear it throughout 2020?”.

I am asking you as an individual, to always remember who you are and what you want from this year. Today, more than any other time in my 32 years as an educator, Year 12 students are pressured to uphold the expectations of many influences, many of those are not your own.

Today, there are three significant storytellers who attempt to influence you by telling you what you should be and how your world is. The first is the media. In 1984 the media did not have the same impact on me as a Year 12 student, as it does and will have on you. You are consistently presented with stories that are negative. This negativity continues to tell you that our world is difficult and is consistently getting worse.

The second storyteller is social media. Social media constantly compares you to others, it creates the impression that to be successful, to be popular, to be in, you must look a particular way, be into specific things and act a certain way. Social media tells you that to fit in, you need to be like or better than the images and messages you see.

Finally, the third storyteller is advertising. You are sent direct advertising because of the social media activity. It sends you advertisements which are selling you goods and a lifestyle that says, if you have this, you could be a better version of you.

These three storytellers, tell you to be a better version of someone else. They tell you that you are not good enough.

My wish for you is that your Year 12 Catholic College jumper signifies the person you are, not the person the three storytellers have told you to be. This will require you to carefully consider all information that comes to you via each of the three. To combat them I am asking you to set goals for 2020 which are what you want, not what the three storytellers are telling you.

And now for the good news.

There are positive storytellers who have genuine expectations of you and want you to be the best version of you. Whether this is your family, friends or a staff member at Catholic College Wodonga, take the opportunity to seek their advice and support. Share with them your goals for 2020. Strive to make your jumper, your year, signify the real you and only you because it is you who we are deeply invested in.

Good luck for 2020 and happy days.