Shared Stories

We ventured through Melbourne, eating crepes (not that he has ever done that before), and took in all the ‘touristy’ locations. We wanted him to see the iconic images of Australia — the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach and The Sydney Opera House — so we went to Sydney, an exciting experience for both of us. Hosting an exchange student from a country to which I have not yet travelled, I have realised that teenagers don’t change from country to country — they’re all preoccupied, rowdy, at times blunt and spend a good majority of their time on Facebook, listening to music or becoming emotionally attached to their iPod. And the joy of it all is that I will be in France next year having an experience of a lifetime, making friendships and connections with strangers, immersing myself in a new and different culture (and eating as many croissant as one man possibly can fit). Au revoir et à bientôt,

Jack Heatley

Fourteen De La Salle students ranging from Year 7 to Year12, contributed to this year’s edition of ‘Shared Stories’, an anthology of student writing and art work, the collaborative effort of twelve Catholic schools in and around Melbourne. This year’s theme was ‘Freedom’ and students were required to produce a piece of writing in any form, or a piece of art work, expressing their individual take on this theme. De La Salle had over fifty entrants from which we were required to select the most effective fourteen. This was not an easy task. The launch took place at Star of the Sea College, Gardenvale in November, with guest speaker Martin Flannigan. It was a wonderful occasion for our students to celebrate their achievements in the company of their fellow contributors. All of the speakers on the day spoke of the high quality of the publication and of the works contained within. Each year copies of the anthology are housed in the State Library of Victoria and at the National Library in Canberra. Various media outlets also peruse the anthology for good student work to publish, so having one’s piece in ‘Shared Stories’ is quite a broad recognition of the talents of the young people published within its pages. Special congratulations to Harry Morris of Year 9 who won the Ellikon publishers prize for De La Salle, for his beautifully simple and nostalgic poem on childhood entitled ‘I Miss.’ Other contributors were; Josh Talbot, Marcus Henriques-Gomez, Renato Siragusano, Thomas Hyland, Tom O’Dwyer, Harry Holden, Ned Morris, Jacob Taylor, Jeremy Palmer, Jack Forbes, Cameron Wilson, Jacob McGaw and Alec Young. Congratulations to everyone who participated. Next year’s theme is ‘What the world needs now...’