October!

Dear St Mary’s Community

It is a funny time of year.

We have transitioned from heaters inside to extreme heat outside in about a week. Now all we want is the first proper rain. We all know (?) that it only rains after “Oom Paul” has celebrated his birthday. (Kruger day used to be a public holiday on October 10th, remember.)

Tempers match the temperatures. Humidifiers modify our homes, pollens and dust modify our nasal cavities, and allergies proliferate. Teachers and matrics get a little more fragile as final deadlines are past and final days near. Anticipation of time at school ending brings a variety of emotion, adding to the fragility. Grade 11s take over with House Dinners and Inter House Music, having survived a rigorous camp, and now enter into the school leadership selection process. The Grade 10 Debutante programme nears its traditional graceful end as group supervisors, parents and Debs proudly contemplate a year of growth and giving, not just a bit relieved that it is once again mission accomplished. Grade 9s settle on subject choices for matric. All the girls are already looking at the final exams, while continuing with charitable work, choirs and orchestra, sport and drama. Grade 7s find out that they have outgrown Junior School (this is a good thing!), Grade 6s look forward to being the big girls in the smaller pond. The Jacaranda’s will soon be blossoming, universally declaring the proximity of exams. Minds are cast beyond the closing of school to the planning of festivity, while trying to remain true to the vast amount that needs to be accomplished before then.

Time relentlessly flies past, impossibly yet definitely faster every year.

“Let us be so certain of our nobility of calling and purpose that gently and humbly we stick to the course which has been allotted to us, without deviation from what we know to be true and good, dealing with each person and each moment as an opportunity and gift.”

Let is make October, “Die mooiste, mooiste maand.”

With very best wishes

Fr Angus Paterson