Before I start properly, we need to have a moment of recognition for a specific group of people in this room. I want to celebrate the commitment of those of you who were, like me, up at 1.00 in the morning to watch England play Mexico live (and still made it to assembly this morning).
Besides that, I want you all to think of the last time you celebrated something. I’m willing to guess that it was something big – an exam result, a win at sports day, or for some of my peers, the Pilgrims’ Challenge. These are all things that are undeniably worth marking, but oddly, it’s not the big moments that get us through the school year. As we approach final assembly on Wednesday, I ask you to celebrate this year slightly differently, to celebrate the hundreds of ordinary moments that would never get a shoutout from this lectern. That could be the lesson where something finally clicked, the early wake up for a morning away fixture, or maybe the day you showed up tired (after a certain world cup match) and did the work anyway.
Celebration shouldn’t be viewed as something that happens to us, something which only arrives when we deserve it. I think that celebration serves us far better as something which we choose to do. It is not a reaction to achievement but a habit which we can choose to build.
“Celebrate what you want to see more of”: that’s not just a quote from Oprah Winfrey, it’s a strategy. If you neglect the discipline that brought you to where you are now, you are teaching yourself that only the finish line matters. But if we can learn to champion the small things, the effort here or there, the decision to try again, we can reinforce what truly matters. A school year is made of what feels like thousands of mundane and unremarkable Mondays. So, unsurprisingly, when the big moments come along they are the only ones we remember. However, those moments are built entirely out of the ordinary days. If we save celebration only for the headline moments, we miss almost the entire year. Admittedly, it is hard to remember something which you never thought to acknowledge, and yet, this practice proves to be invaluable.
So, I urge you to look back upon the academic year behind you and to pick out that one small thing. The big moments always find a way to get celebrated, so here’s to the small ones that need us to choose to notice them.
Noah
Senior Prefect