Captains’ Corner | Vice Captain, Eden Chan
I love reading. Memoirs, bush poems, science fiction – I love it all. Luckily for you, this is not a book review or literary op-ed, but rather, a reflection on a lesson I have come to learn over my many reading adventures (fasten your seatbelts!).
About halfway through Year 9, I was given a book from my dear Gran – Over the Top with Jim by Hugh Lunn. With its bright yellow cover, it is quite hard to miss on the bookshelf. For those who haven’t read this great memoir, Over the Top with Jim retells the life of a modest Catholic family living in Annerley Junction in the 1950s. Assisted by Lunn’s easy-going, relaxed writing style, I breezed through the first few pages, picking up many interesting (and occasionally eye-opening) facts about Australian life in the 50s. About an hour or two into reading the book, I was shocked to discover that Hugh Lunn was a Terracian himself. Although it is by no means the book’s central tale, I was intrigued by his retelling of Terrace during the 1950s, and perhaps even more so, thankful that the cane is no longer inflicted as punishment. Christian Brother teachers, the State Scholarship Examination, and ‘nulla nullas’ were all completely alien concepts to me, and yet, strangely familiar.
Frankly, at this point in my life, I had lost track of who I was as a Terracian. Gone were the days of marvelling at the many historic buildings of the College and gone were the days of that endless enthusiasm we all seem to find on our first day at the College. And yes, I admit this might have just been part of life as a freshly anointed teenager, but, regardless, as a 15-year-old boy reading such a historical account of Terrace, I was in awe. From this point on, Terrace wasn't just a school to me – it was a place of vast history. For the next few weeks, I was astonished by just how far back this great College really does go. But even with a history spanning 146 years, I couldn’t escape that odd feeling of familiarity with it all.
And then, in Mr Whitehouse’s Digitech class of all places, it hit me: The Terrace story is not some compartmentalised, segmented history - it is a continuous collection of stories and experiences. This is why I think Hugh Lunn’s stories resonated so much with me. Because, despite changing times, many of his experiences are to be found in everyday life at the College. We have all experienced that rotten feeling of forgetting homework, and - though hopefully not often - we have all annoyed our teachers at some point. Some things never do change.
Oddly enough, it was this realisation that changed my perspective on Terrace. I wasn’t just another student; I was part of the Terrace story - the very history of our College. No longer was Terrace just a school, but a place to leave my mark. A chance to write history, if you will.
To my fellow Terracians, I tell you this with confidence: you are not just a student, you are an author of the incredible thing that is the Terrace story. I implore all of you to make your mark, to leave your legacy, to Answer the Call. However, you put it, you only have one chance.
Make it count.