We have recently moved into a house on the road that I loved when I was a kid. This is not something I ever expected to do, or even wanted to do, but it’s been a really great experience so far.
However, there is an intersection in the neighbourhood that was always pretty shoddy and things haven’t improved since I was a kid. It’s a corner that a lot of trucks use on their way to Eugowra, and every time there is heavy rain the road gets ripped up and potholes appear everywhere.
This was no different last week when we got all that rain, and I just couldn’t believe that the same piece of road hadn’t been properly fixed in the last 35 years. A council crew came along and patched up the potholes as soon as they possibly could, which was great, but it’s only a temporary fix.
Of course we all know that the road needs to be closed, ripped up, fully repaired, reinforced and resealed. But this will take lots of time and money and inconvenience a lot of people, so it doesn’t happen.
This sort of thing creeps into school life all the time.
Students know exactly what it takes to succeed – hard work, daily commitment to study, completing homework, starting assessments straight away and not leaving them till the night before… the list could go on. But all too often they focus on what they’re doing in the moment and just paper over the cracks.
They come up with a short-term fix by cramming before their exams, or pulling an all nighter to get their assessment done. While these methods can work while there’s not too much pressure on, they will lead to problems when the “rain” starts to fall. Long term success only comes from putting time and effort in, and becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable.
We have a wonderful group of young adults in our senior classes, and I believe in every single one of them. As they start their Year 12 courses next term, I really hope they can continue to develop the self-discipline to put in the hard work and succeed. Not just for their HSC, but into their future and the rest of their lives.
Greg