2020: A Crash Course in Abandoning Expectations
Looking back on 2020, my expectations for the year reminded me of a Renaissance landscape painting: perfectly planned realism, somewhat predictable but undeniably beautiful. The reality of this pandemic year has been more like an abstract portrait: pushing the boundaries of reality, unexpected, somewhat confronting but holding a beauty of it’s own. My Renaissance landscape…
Goodbye, School of New York Times
My life came to a grinding halt on Friday the 13th of March. I’m not a superstitious person, but that is when I left New York City. I was not meant to be home until the end of this year. I cried when I saw the email: the School of New York Times was shutting…
Top 5 Lessons Learnt from the Last Year of High School: a Reflection on 2019
The final year of high school is universally known as one of the most exciting and memorable years of life, yet also one of the most stressful and uprooting. This time last year, these mixed messages had me very confused. A year later, as 2020 begins, I can actually agree with this oxymoronic truth! Of…
Thank you 2018!
As I brace for my last year of high school and the truly uncharted future that awaits after that, I’ve taken some time to reflect on what 2018 has brought! In 2018 I stepped up to senior high school, and I have had a chance to grow my leadership skills. Through leading school events, especially…
My Video BYO Cutlery Wins Justice Literary Competition!
How often do you use plastic cutlery? This is not a question we often ask ourselves in our gleamingly convenient modern societies. I only began to ask myself this question in the last couple of years. And once I noticed, I couldn’t seem to unnotice. Lunch out with friends – plastic cutlery. Birthday party dinner – plastic cutlery.…
Our Year 11 Production was a Success!
Last week my year 11 class brought to life – on the St Vincent’s College stage – our own rendition of “A Series of Unfortunate Events”. It was a tremendous amount of work and I am extraordinarily proud to say it was a huge success! It was my first time directing a play and…
Video: Humanity’s Changing Relationship with Death
Nothing in life is certain, but death. Or is it? With technology improving at an exponential rate, human-made afterlives may soon be within our reach. Through my comparative analysis of the Bible and the “Black Mirror” episode “San Junipero” at school – St Vincent’s – in my English class this term, I discovered much about…
Dr David Warren – Winner of Edward Warner Award
Today, 20th March, would have been the birthday of David Warren – the Aussie who invented the “black box” or Flight Data Recorder. I have told many of David’s stories and to celebrate today, I will tell a more recent achievement of this amazing man. In September 2016, David Warren was post-humously awarded the International Civil…
Reflection on 2017
In 2014, after my first year of high school, I published my “Looking back at Year 7” blog and unknowingly started a yearly tradition for myself. I have come to appreciate this little tradition because now I can go back and read them to remember the things that excited me and the challenges I faced…
Video: Find Out What New York Times Journalist Thinks Really Happened to MH370
In October my favourite aviation journalist and one of my good friends, Christine Negroni, did a fascinating speech on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370 and her new book “The Crash Detectives” at Sydney’s world-renowned Powerhouse Museum. I received the exciting honour of introducing Christine to the crowd of keen aviation fanatics! In her book,…
