Austin Wallace – School Captain 2021

Austin Wallace

School Captain 2021

It is so easy to miss the positives in life, to overlook things and take them for granted, particularly given the year we’ve had. We’ve had floods, fire, drought and a global pandemic still occurring as I speak, all of which have affected us in some way. It’s so easy to complain when things haven’t gone our way, or we have missed out on something and I’m sure that each one of us can sit here today and reflect on a setback or disappointment we have had in the near past, and it would be easy to see these things as negative. However, I want to propose to you a different way of looking at these things and that is looking through a lens of gratitude, as I believe that it is the most powerful perspective shift one can have.

Now the reason why I say this is when you live with the intent of gratitude, optimism and appreciation follow suit, and can be applied each and every day. For every adversity, there are countless positives. Didn’t make the team? At least you got to try out. You got to improve your skills. Didn’t get the mark you wanted? Now you know where to improve. You have the motivation to do better. When you start to count your blessings, positivity fills the place of what was formerly detractive.

With our successes, it is intuitive to be appreciative when hard work has gone into the feat. What sorts out the pack is whether or not we are grateful for the victories in life which are almost handed to us. The obvious one, right here, right now, is our ability to attend a school such as King’s. Our parents have made such a sacrifice to get us here and there are very few people in the world who have the same opportunity that sits in front of us all. Now, this isn’t a speech where I’m going to preach to you about how lucky we are, because I’m sure you’ve all been told that countless times. I am simply speaking about the importance of gratitude, after all “gratitude is what separates privilege from entitlement.”

I’ll share a story with you all, of a time when I wasn’t grateful. I began my journey at King’s in Year 6; I was shorter, slightly chunkier and unsure as to why I was here. Since I was three, I had lived overseas in Singapore and moving to King’s was the biggest change in my life up to that point. I still remember vividly on one of my first days wearing my uniform after school, where a toddler came up to me, looked me in the eyes and told me I looked like a pirate. And although I look back and think it is such a small comment, at the time it genuinely made me self-conscious of our uniform and I didn’t enjoy pulling on that blazer for a while after. I didn’t appreciate it, but at the time I didn’t understand the culture, the traditions of the School and all the boys who had pulled the uniform on before me. I didn’t understand how special our school is. So I say, wear your uniform with pride. Today I’m am so grateful for the opportunity I have to don the salt and pepper blazer, the lover’s knot on our cuffs, the red stripe on our trousers. All significant as they symbolise King’s.

For so many of us, the decision to go to King’s wasn’t one which we made, but rather was greatly influenced by our parents. However, a decision which cannot be made for you is what you decide to do with the gifts and opportunities granted to you. It would be so easy to come to school and do the bare minimum. Clock in at 8.20 and out at 3.30. But, that’s not what we do here. Every morning boys wake up early to go to the gym, to go to basketball or head to Putney for rowing, to go to orchestras and chamber choirs, to pursue their passions before the rest of Sydney is awake. Boys stay after school to train for footy, to take on Chandlers hill, go to clubs, do shooting, or sacrifice their Friday night for debating. Our school is not an 8am to 3pm school, so make the most of every opportunity, for the experience is whatever you make of it. To echo the words of my predecessor Rupert, “go and try one new thing here over the coming year”. This past year I gave shooting a go. I’ll openly say I’m a city boy and I’d never handled a rifle in my life. But I saw the opportunity was there and thought why not? Now some may say I wasn’t the strongest shooter on that team by far, but I will say that’s unimportant. What is important is that I tried something different. I was willing to take the risk, take the leap, and be grateful for the opportunity presented without worrying about the outcome. I am genuinely thankful for the experience and further, I can see it as one less thing I will regret not doing in my time here. Don’t let fear hold you back and forget the worst outcome. A way to present true gratefulness is to make the most of your gifts and the easiest way to do so is to get involved every day and not leave it to your final hours here. If this year has taught us anything it’s that what we take for granted can be altered quicker than we think, so don’t delay, take action.

The impact of our gratitude for the School doesn’t just affect everyone individually. Rather, this is our School and the culture is whatever we as students make it. So, what do you want our legacy to be? Will, we be a School of boys who make the most of their opportunities and march out those gates as proud Kingsmen, as so many have done before? Will we hold our peers accountable to the standards we set? Will we take ownership and be grateful? Or will we sit back and hope for the best? The thing about legacy is that the decisions we make today aren’t just important to us, but to the countless Old Boys before us, and the countless numbers who will follow. We have been blessed with the opportunity to give back to such a diverse community. We have people from all over the world, all walks of life, different passions all united under the sky blue and white. It is our decision what we decide to do with this opportunity. I say go out there and capture it.

So, I ask you to think about things differently this year, think about what you are going to do differently. How you are going to serve the School in gratitude, build culture and serve the legacy of the School, get involved? After all as I said before, this place is operated from early to late so there are plenty of hours in the day to bring this to life. I ask that you reflect upon what is in front of you, good or bad, and find the things in life which you can be grateful for, find that lens of gratitude that I spoke about, and most of all, commit yourself fully to the great School of which we are all a part.

“For every adversity, there are countless positives. Didn’t make the team? At least you got to try out. You got to improve your skills. Didn’t get the mark you wanted? Now you know where to improve. You have the motivation to do better. When you start to count your blessings, positivity fills the place of what was formerly detractive”