Captains’ Corner | Vice Captain, Eden Chan

In December 2019, while travelling solo in Taiwan to exercise some of my newly learnt Chinese, I was lucky enough to attend a high school in a small southern city known as Pingtung. To put it into perspective, Pingtung is less than one tenth as large as Brisbane and – in many places – has little access to clean water. Why then, you might ask, would I ever be interested in going to such a place? Frankly, even on arrival in Taiwan, I hadn’t yet answered that question myself. I was figuratively (and often literally) directionless.

Despite this, I tried to remain optimistic and perfect my dodgy Chinese speaking skills as much as possible. Thankfully, all the students and teachers at my host school welcomed me with open arms and willingly helped out with every aspect of life in Taiwan. Along with my host family, I can say with complete confidence that the generosity and care shown to me by the people of Taiwan was truly unparalleled.

But what amazed me was not the kindness of the Taiwanese but rather their seemingly endless gratitude for everything they received. Having been at the College since 2016, it was certainly easy to develop a sense of entitlement over time, especially considering all of the state-of-the-art facilities we are constantly surrounded by. Needless to say, the fairly dilapidated and run-down classrooms of my host school were a far cry from anything I had encountered at Terrace. In fact, after speaking to a few of the school’s teachers, I soon came to realise that many of my new peers were only just able to afford much of the stationery and uniform we often take for granted. With their perpetually gracious and cheerful outlooks on life, I simply would have never known.

See, what was so special about this community was not any particular material possession or building but rather a profound sense of gratitude. On return to Australia, I brought back not only a slightly improved pronunciation of Chinese but an admiration of my host peers’ immense appreciation and gratefulness. Only then did I realise how good we have it at Terrace. Tennyson, Mt Sion, Waterford – there isn’t much we don’t have.

So, gentlemen, I challenge every one of you to be just that little more gracious. Thank your mum or dad for driving you to school in the morning. Thank your teachers for their wisdom. Thank God for all the tremendous opportunities afforded to us.

Answer the Call to be grateful for all that we have.