Does our past and the mistakes that we made, define who we are in the present?

This question has been on my mind for a little while now, regarding choices that I have made when I was growing up. In my time, I have made so many mistakes- too many to count! Mistakes that have caused others pain, anguish and even sadness. On the other hand, I have made mistakes that have encouraged laughter, often at my expense. I think back to when we were introducing SEQTA, a learning management program here at PPN. When one of the Admin would make a mistake on SEQTA that Mr Koczwara would have to fix (which happened often), we would have to wear a glove on our head. This bought great joy to Miss Bernoth as it was often Mr Borresen and myself that would learn the hard way!

When we are young, mistakes that we make can seem monumental in size. When we grow up and reflect on these mistakes, we often see how we learn from them. I think back to one mistake that I made when water skiing with my family one weekend. Being younger and energetic, I loved to wakeboard and learning new tricks was sometimes a painful experience. There was a boat full of people, watching me try to learn a new trick which involved spinning in the air, passing the rope behind me and hopefully landing up the right way. My dad wanted to make it as easy as he could for me, so we decided to create a 'double up' wake, where the boat would loop around on itself and create a wave (wake) double the size as normal. I was very keen to try this and didn't really think through the consequences. I was all ready to hit the massive wake and what happened next was quite a shock. I launched the highest I have ever launched in my life. Silly enough, I didn't think to pull out of the trick, so I started to spin. I was so high, the rope pulled me off my normal axis and I landed on my chest and face from about 10ft up in the air. The next thing I knew, the boat was next to me and I was on my back in the water feeling VERY sick. I was knocked unconscious for a few seconds and ended up being concussed for quite some time. I learned a very important lesson that day, not to show off in front of my friends when I wasn't properly prepared.

You may be asking why I'm telling the story. From that moment, I was apprehensive when it came to trying new things. I was comfortable with what I knew, and I felt safe in that. I never did try that trick again, as I associated the trick with pain.

Now, I am a lot older, I have made countless more mistakes, but I am always learning from them. Do my past mistakes define who I am to today? Yes- because had I not learned that lesson, I wouldn't be the person I am today. Do my mistakes affect my present? 1000% yes! Do I still make mistakes in SEQTA? Not as often, but yes I still do. Do I let them affect me negatively? No. It's so easy to get down on ourselves when we make mistakes. We look back, think of all the 'what if I did this/that different' and this can bog us down.

We have a great opportunity to learn from our mistakes, and be a better person to those around us in the present. I challenge you to be a good example, in your classroom, workspace and in general everyday life!

Have a great second last week of school! Holidays are just around the corner.

Jason Davis

Deputy Principal