I find it difficult to sit here and try to justly reflect six years of education and growth in just a few paragraphs. It's the little things that happen consistently over a long period of time that really contribute to personal growth, as opposed to a few select "important" moments throughout my education that supposedly make me realise who I am. In this essay, I will do my best to explain how my time at Sligo Sudbury School has prepared me to graduate, and to go on to living an independent, adult, and self directed life.
For a lot of my early years at Sudbury, I always liked to think that I knew what I was going to do after school. I enjoyed making movies and editing, and so I very much convinced myself that I was going to study film editing. I think I convinced myself of this, and told other people when they would ask me, because I thought that I should have a plan and a final goal. But that was just the beginning. Each interest and hobby of mine has nurtured learning and brought me to new places. I worked on projects like filming my own movies at school, which involved writing a story and script, managing a cast and organising shooting days, times, and locations for maximum efficiency, and then editing it all. I learned a huge amount about project management, and how to get the best out of people/colleagues. I also had the opportunity to be in charge of various projects such as fundraising videos and school promotional videos, which also taught me about organisation and project management.
I learned similar skills being chairperson of the School Meeting for my first four years in Sudbury. I learned how to manage a discussion and how to deal with and evaluate ideas and proposals being brought to the table. These are skills that apply outside of chairing a meeting, as the simple concept of listening to someone's idea, weighing it up, and then either agreeing, or proposing an alternative is something that I feel very confident and capable of doing.
I eventually drifted away from being a "filmmaker" and started to explore my passion with food. I cooked at school, and took part in various cooking activities. This meant that I started telling people that I was going to be a chef. This pattern of making a passion of mine my "life goal" is something that I struggled with in my first few years at school.
"I think there's a great beauty to having problems, that's one of the ways we learn." - Herbie Hancock
I eventually realised and accepted that I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. This acceptance came around the time when a larger social peer group was forming for me at school. I still loved cooking and still cooked in school, but I worried less about it being my "life goal". This was a very important lesson that I learned: It's okay to not know what you want to do after school, especially when you're only 14. The freedom and space that Sudbury provided is what allowed me to realise that.
I eventually developed a great passion for music and for performing, whether singing in a rock band, or playing jazz trumpet. Around the same time I began studying for IGCSE exams. The decision to study for and take those exams taught me that if I want to do something, and I put my head to it, I will succeed. The learning here was particularly deep because nobody forced me to study for exams. it was my decision and initiative, which really made something click in my head. I really understood on a deeper level what it means to work toward something, and that if I want to achieve something, whatever that may be, I need to put the work and effort in to achieve it.
After completing IGCSE exams, I was more drawn to playing trumpet and jazz, which led to my decision to enrol in an A level distance learning course in music composition and harmony. The decision to enrol in this course was critical in solidifying music as one of the biggest and most important parts of my life.
And that, more or less leads us to now, where music in general, but jazz trumpet specifically, is my passion.
Finding your own identity is something that I believe is very closely tied with discovering and finding out what you love to do. Finding out what you love doing is something that is very important for all people. It gives us purpose, and with purpose, often comes confidence. Because of the space and freedom (to explore different hobbies and interests) that I've had as a student in Sudbury, I know who I am, and what I love to do. I feel like I have purpose, which contributes to me feeling emotionally secure and confident - this has helped me to make the decision to graduate from Sudbury, with a clear plan and purpose in mind.
This concept is quite important: I'm not leaving Sudbury because I don't know what to do there anymore, I'm moving on from Sudbury to fuel and support my goal.
Now that I've spoken about my time at Sudbury, let me discuss my future goals. My immediate plan is to spend all of my time and energy on music, studying, composing, listening, but above all, practicing jazz trumpet. At some point during the next school year, I will be sending out applications and auditions to various universities. The overall goal is then to be studying jazz performance in another country, in September 2025.
I am ready to graduate Sudbury because I feel as though I have a well defined personality and character, with passions and interests which give me purpose. I am confident that Sligo Sudbury School has contributed greatly to making me feel this way, as well as having prepared me with various skills, especially in the department of project management, organisation, and teamwork. I am ready to face the next chapter of my life in an independent, self directed way.
"Its not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change"
-Miles Davis