CAREER FOCUS
Anna Murphy (Class of 1996) Whilst for most of my life I have known the Loughborough Amherst School as Our Lady’s Convent School, I am delighted that the school has a new lease of life as it heads towards its 200-year anniversary. My mother and aunt were pupils back in the 1950s and 1960s and I started in first year (now year 7) in 1989. I was followed there by my sisters – Lucy (1992), Ruth (1994) and Maria (1998). We four sisters have always been close and our parents encouraged us to bring our friends home. Their welcoming attitude coupled with our home’s close proximity to school meant that it was constantly filled with groups of Convent girls usually laughing and talking but, of course, occasionally fighting and crying! I have stayed in close contact with several friends from school who still live locally and am in rather less close contact than I would like with many. In preparing to write this article, I spent time thinking about the different life paths that we have chosen or found ourselves on and identifying what lessons school taught us to help us as we grew to adulthood and what values were instilled in us. Giving to others was a common theme of my school days – whether that was donating tinned food for Christmas hampers for the needy or being encouraged to help younger pupils who were struggling with friendship group problems (a perennial problem for teenagers!). Service to others was a virtue widely encouraged, practised and praised at school. I think it is no coincidence then that as I look around the local community and on Facebook feeds that I see so many ex Convent pupils involved making a difference in the lives of those around them – whether this is by chairing the PTA, helping run youth clubs at church, working with local charities or volunteering at community sports clubs. As Louisa May Alcott tells us in Little Women, “The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.” Most of us aren’t called to do jobs which bring us fame or fortune but we can each make a difference through serving those we live amongst. After school, I spent 4 happy years at Durham University (once I got over the initial homesickness) studying (perhaps rather less than I should have), socialising (perhaps rather more than I should have) and generally spreading my wings and growing up a bit. In my final year I was chair of the Junior Common Room of my college, which again I think reflects the importance of serving your community which I learned at school and home. When the time came to choose what career to pursue, I knew that my vocation was something in
16
the public service but exactly what was difficult to discern! On the advice of my tutor, I sat the civil service exams initially hoping to get a job working for a Government department. But whilst reading through the FastStream brochure, I found out about a small number of graduate jobs available at the House of Lords and I decided straight away to apply for this option. Twenty years later, I am still working at the House of Lords – in that time I have held a variety of posts within the administration which have kept me challenged, busy and fulfilled. Like all of us, my life is busy. Family life with my husband and three children is busy and even, some might say, chaotic! A few years ago I was asked whether I would be the speaker at the Amherst prize giving and I was delighted to accept. Following on from that I became a governor at the school. I have greatly enjoyed rekindling my close connection to the school and seeing first-hand how the values of the school which inspired my generation are now being instilled in a new generation of pupils. The words of St Henry Newman about vocation resonate with me, “God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.” This lesson of love for and service to others was kindly and gently taught to me by example rather than word. I shall be forever grateful to the school and my parents for the many opportunities I was given and the kindness with which I was steered towards finding a fulfilling and happy path in life.
