Proud to say I know absolutely nothing

I moved to Redhill in the middle of Grade 9, feeling as if I had a pretty good grasp on the world. Three and a half years later, as I’m about to graduate, I can safely say that I know absolutely nothing. Now, that might not be what parents want to hear after their children have just received 12 years of expensive education, but allow me a minute to explain.

Before I came to Redhill, I had never questioned the way I was taught and the things I was told to believe. However, my learning experience over the past few years has progressed past the point of just learning facts. I have learned how to think and discover things for myself. And the more I have learned, the more my world has expanded. And as it expands, I realise just how much there is that I don’t know. As Plato once said, “I’m the wisest man alive for I know one thing, and that’s that I know nothing.”

Redhill is one of only three schools in the country that offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme, and the only school that offers students the option of graduating with either an IEB (Independent Examination Board) or IB qualification. It’s not lost on me what a privilege it is to be given the opportunity to choose between these two options.

Not only has my journey through the IB programme made an indelible mark on my life and helped shape who I am, but our IB class of 2022 has also become a tightly woven cohort over the past two years. You know that feeling when you go to the theatre and watch a show, you leave feeling as if some part of you has been changed irrevocably, and then you realise that that unique experience was shared with the rest of the house? That’s how I feel about these past two years. Wherever our IB class ends up, we’ll always have that shared experience tying us together.

I’d like to thank all our teachers for their dedication in getting us through this rigorous, internationally recognised programme. Your strength and kindness together with your ability help us challenge ourselves even further is appreciated more than you know.

To my fellow matrics of 2022 around the country, embrace the fact that you have so much left to learn and so much space and time to grow.

To quote Taylor Swift:

“Scary news is: you’re on your own now.

Cool news is: you’re on your own now.”