The Pursuit of Greatness
Senior College Prefect, Jemima, believes that in order to achieve success, we must embrace our mistakes.
Each week, our student leaders share their insights with their peers in Assembly.
I think too often we approach situations head-on and say, “Failure is not an option for me.” I frequently hear such claims in our school, and can also slip into this mindset. A statement like this comes from a good place. It depicts ambition, drive, and a strong will to succeed but equally, this perspective is deeply flawed because it overlooks one of the most critical steps in the pursuit of greatness – mistakes.
Making mistakes is not just part of the process, it is the process. They are inevitable. When we condition ourselves only to celebrate our triumphs, facing adversity and setbacks becomes much more difficult. The truth is that embracing mistakes is the only avenue to growth, improvement and, in turn, success.
When I think of mistakes, naturally, I think of one experience in Year 9 that took place in this very room. In fact, someone in this audience is walking evidence of that mistake, one that I own proudly, not because of its unfortunate nature but because of the meaning I have derived from it.
It was a PE class, and I was participating in a game of dodgeball when I lost control and sight of Mr McDonell in a freak moment of misjudgement. I was running to the sideline to accept my temporary defeat when my shoulder charged into something. To my surprise, it was Mr McDonell’s face as he was lunging forward at the time, resulting in him needing a couple of stitches on his lip. I was horrified and humbled.
That moment taught me more than just a lesson in spatial awareness, it taught me about impact, literally and figuratively. I realised that sometimes, even in our well-intended attempts to ‘dodge’ difficulties, we collide with them. And that’s okay because how we recover from those collisions says more about us, than the incident itself. Now, in no way am I saying that the incident with Mr McDonell shaped the trajectory of my life, nor the formation of my character, but it provided me with a special correlation to the grit in life one must overcome that speaks to the kind of person you are.
That experience was just one of the many mistakes I have made. That being said, if I had let the fear of making mistakes stop me from ever trying something in the first place, I would have spent my years at School hesitating, holding back, and avoiding risks that could lead to something great.
Hesitation is a form of failure, and in our School life when time is fleeting, every moment spent discarding an opportunity or wallowing in self-pity is a missed learning experience. Time does not wait for us to build the perfect plan – it rewards those who are willing to take a leap, even if it means falling a few times along the way.
Year 7, I wish I had learned this early on. You have so many mistakes ahead of you, some will be small, and others will feel monumental, but every single one will be an opportunity.
So, seize everything. Embrace mistakes and moments of misfortune because at the core of our School Values, this idea fits seamlessly:
You must have the Strength to try new things, the Grace to overcome them, and the Wisdom to reflect. The Kindness to Mr McDonell in the following years to compensate for the accident is optional.
And finally, have the Courage—or the grit—to take risks and gamble with the possibility of failure or success. Because in the end, the only real mistake is being too afraid to make one at all.
This is an edited version of Jemima’s Assembly speech.