In the speech that we gave on the Year 9’s first day at the beginning of this year we likened the time one spends at high school to climbing a hill. The Class of 2018 has completed that climb, and we now stand on top of the hill, marvelling at the view.

What comes next doesn’t have to be the descent that you would normally make once you have reached the summit of a peak.  The vision of Wellington Girls’ College is Mā te kahukura ka rere te manu, ka rere runga rawa  Adorn the bird with feathers and let it fly, let it soar.  We now have all of the feathers we need to fly and soar off into the world.

With the Class of 2018 now at the end of their time at high school, the changes that we have gone through are valuable to consider.  Thinking back to our Year 9 selves, while we might now be heading off to do different things than we had originally planned and look rather different to when we first started wearing our teal uniforms, the greatest change that has occurred is in how we consider ourselves as people of the world.

We’ve been through a lot as a year group, and have been involved in many rather unique events - the school being struck by lightning in Year 10; an earthquake cancelling our science exam in year 11; the disappearance of the school cat in Year 12 (Rest In Peace Tallulah); a bomb threat cancelling our ball in Year 13, and, just our luck, an earthquake happening 5 minutes before the end of our last day of school.  These are the things that we will look back on when we’re reminiscing about our high school days, and whilst we don’t really understand why our year group seems to be slightly cursed, at least we now have a strong arsenal of stories from our time at high school.

The best thing about the end of a journey is that it always brings about the start of another.  We can’t wait to use the feathers we’ve been adorned with during our time at Wellington Girls’ and hop out of the nest into the world that awaits us. We’ve loved being a part of the WGC Class of 2018, and it seems completely surreal that we won’t be all together next year.  Despite the fact that we are all going off to different places next year, we will remain connected by the school for the rest of our lives.  We may not be physically here, but it’s safe to say that we will always have teal blood running through our veins, and we’ll always be a part of the WGC sisterhood.