Calling for Kindness
Deputy Head Prefect Kalara (Year 12) honours her great-grandmother’s legacy of empathy and resilience.
Each week, our student leaders share their insights with their peers in Assembly.
As she often does, the other night my grandmother sent me a message. Expecting it to be the usual animal meme or some sort of conspiracy theory that she’s forwarded from her many WhatsApp group chats, I was surprised to see that it was a collection of old photos of my great-grandmother.
My great-grandmother was in her early twenties when the Japanese invaded Indonesia. All of a sudden, her belongings, and her life as she knew it was completely taken from her, and she had to walk around 900 km through the jungle, barefoot and pregnant, to try to find a new life.
There’s no doubt at all that we are exceptionally privileged. And it is so important to remain conscious and grateful for all the freedoms, comfort, and education we are afforded.
But that doesn't mean that things aren’t hard for us sometimes as well. It doesn’t mean we don’t have our own challenges. And it doesn’t mean we don’t sometimes need help.
It is so easy to compare and discount our problems, especially in the grand scheme of things, and in no way am I equating my own and my great-grandmother’s experiences, but things can be hard. Your problems are valid. Things really can be that deep … and you are doing so well.
Despite all the hardship and incredible adversity she had to overcome, I have always remembered my great-grandmother as someone who truly had empathy.
No matter how little my problem seemed, she genuinely had compassion and was always kind – speaking up when things weren’t right, being the voice of reason when perspective was lost and giving a hug when it was most needed.
Especially during this time, when assessments are on, it’s getting to the end of the term, and we all tend to be less tolerant of ourselves and those around us.
And I know we have all heard it before, but you truly have no idea what people are going through, and they probably don’t know what you are going through either. Yet, you DO have the agency to decide how you act.
So be kind. Just in case, be kind – to everyone around you and especially yourself. Be kind.