My life has been bit of a journey, moving from city to city, originally starting off in Auckland, New Zealand where I was born. Fresh air, green grass, footy and family. But life changes and a few years later my parents made the decision to move over to Australia. Seven years of age and a new life ahead of me was a definite challenge. Leaving my mates, my cousins and family was scary and daunting, but most of all, exciting. Sydney happened! The culture, the people and the city itself made an indelible impact on me, denting my DNA to make me a diehard NSW Blues for life. New friends were made, new footy club and new school. However, the changes continued and we were to leave this place, this city and friendships after a couple of years. We were heading off to the sunshine state of Queensland. After two years living in Brisbane, we hit the road once again, travelling westward to the Darling Downs where we found home in this little country town called Dalby. I am currently finishing my last year of school at Our Lady of the Southern Cross and it has truly been a journey leading up to graduation. If I was to give my greatest advice it would be to say don’t set yourself low goals, aim higher and give it your all. Everything is possible. Try and step outside of any barriers you may have placed around yourself and do something you would never have imagined yourself doing, be it cultural or sporting. The only thing that you can do wrong is to look back at your High School years and find there is nothing to remember. Try your best in everything you do to better yourself, whether its studying or training and you will start to accomplish things you once thought were never possible.

Lytana King-Togia

I am sure most of have heard past students and teachers warning that, “Year 12 goes in a blink of an eye”, and simply shrugged it off as it didn’t really phase you at the time. Trust me, I was one of those people who did not give it a second thought when first told, but soon discovered it’s definitely something you must experience in order to believe. As a current Year 12 student with only four weeks of school left, forever, I can definitely assure you that it does in fact go faster than one could imagine; perhaps even too fast for our own liking. One word of advice I can grant to all students is to please appreciate every moment at school because it really does go so terribly quickly, and unfortunately, you don’t truly realise how great school is until it’s too late. Year 12 is a year filled with mixed emotions. Whether the result of staying up until the early hours of the morning to finish an assignment due the next day, or creating and expanding relationships with students and staff, or even simply bawling your eyes out because there are just “too many things to handle”, Year 12 is indeed a wild ride. Every Year 12 can agree that they’ve had a rollercoaster of a year in some shape or form, but if it wasn’t for that rollercoaster, we wouldn’t be where we are, or be the people we are today. I hope reading this has opened your eyes up to a much bigger picture; an insight into the experiences of a girl who once dreaded the thought of going to school every day to now never wanting it to come to an end. Don’t take every day you walk into school for granted. Treasure each day as if it’s your last day on earth because I can guarantee that one day, you’ll regret not doing it.

Laney Schloss

At the age of 4, I was already entering a new chapter in my life and it was certainly very daunting. On the plane to Australia, I was scared, anxious and confused. The thought of being in a different family and being in a different culture made me tentative about every action I made. However, I was lucky enough to have such a supportive family who provided me with the opportunity to go to Our Lady of the Southern Cross College where I began my journey in faith and knowledge. Being accepted by the College community and knowing that you have friends and staff to fall back on was and still is a great feeling. Starting in Prep and hopefully graduating this year, I have noticed how much this school and those in our cohort have evolved.  From being the first age group to transition from Kindergarten to Prep and becoming the last ever Year 7s to be in primary school, this grade has experienced some challenges. However, throughout these years, we have also been presented opportunities to create countless memories that will be cherished forever. We may have lost some soldiers along the way, but as a Grade, we managed to fight our way through when faced with adversities that come with being such a small group. We used Emu Gully as an opportunity to show the community our true colours and what we are made of. The camp was a challenge as our cohort was already so diverse for its size, plus we had recently welcomed a few new students into the mix.  But we proved to not only those who doubted us, but also to ourselves, that we could come out of our shells, demonstrating that we could, with great success, move as a unit, not just as individuals. Year 12 is a different chapter but who am I to give advice, I still haven’t attained my OP yet... Honestly, there’s no secret to completing Year 12. The message is transparent: use your teachers and don’t be afraid to ask questions because what’s there to lose? You’re there to learn and teachers are there to guide you through this. They don’t expect you to be experts! Unless you already are...

Jonty MacDougall