I always find Christmas time is the perfect time to reflect on the year that has passed. I use it as a time to be grateful - for friends, family, possessions, experiences - and this Christmas is no exception.
Last night marked the end of my first year as a boarding assistant in a boarding school in Central Western New South Wales. The school’s annual Christmas dinner was a beautiful festivity arranged by the boarding mistress and master, which they no doubt put hours of organisation into.
The dinner, put on by the dining hall, consisted of ham, turkey and pork, baked potatoes, peas and corn, along with pumpkin and gravy. Additionally a selection of sauces including apple sauce, cranberry jelly and mustards, and a Christmas pudding with custard were provided.
I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of the girls all dressed in jumbo Christmas stockings they had cut the bottoms of, in order to be worn as boob-tube dresses and the male students dressed in collared shirts and smart trousers (a great change from their usual dinner attire of t-shirts and boardies with thongs). They had all made such an effort!
We played trivia, guess that tune, tunnel ball and a custard-eating competition, and farewelled staff that were to depart at the end of 2009 and also watched performances by both the girls and boys boarding houses.
I really appreciated the close community feel we have within our boarding environment. When the boarding parents’ children are able to run around, and are passed to students to be looked after while the boarding mistresses and masters need to organise various events etc, the true family feel of the school truly comes out.
I feel so privileged to have been able to be involved in this school community; a great change from my life on campus at university last year. I was yesterday asked whether I had preferred my year on campus, or as a boarding mistress more, and I honestly could not say. Both experiences have been incredible – experiences I could only have had while at university, they wouldn’t be possibilities in the future with a full-time job. I am so grateful I have been able to experience them when I have, and that I have made embraced these opportunities when they have arisen.
I have learned over these past two years that it is crucial to take up any opportunity that comes your way, despite the fact that it may seem scary or somewhat out of your comfort zone.
12 months ago I certainly didn’t believe I would be able to control 35 girls and to oversee their well-being and care for them on a regular basis, while earning respect from them and developing wonderful sister-sister style relationships that ensure they can approach me with their problems. Of course it is still necessary to maintain professional distance, but this experience has enabled me to develop leadership skills and friendships (with the other residents) that will last forever.
This Christmas I can be grateful for an incredible array of friends and experiences that I have gained in 2009.
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