Twenty one years ago yesterday, I moved to Australia. It seems like a lifetime ago now and it should because it was a lifetime ago. I still remember the excitement like it was yesterday. The excitement and uncertainty around what was going to happen next. The anticipation of what life in Australia would look like.
Coincidentally this week I also celebrated the end of the Student Leadership program at the Ballarat Tech School with our official handover day. I’ve been lucky enough to work alongside 12 incredible young people who have supported our Girls/Boys in STEM program throughout the year. We’ve spent close to 20 days together, either on the program days or on our special leadership days where we work on developing their leadership skills.
As part of the celebrations we also welcomed the next group of students who would be leaders in 2026. The most rewarding moment of my job so far was when I watched the current leaders excitedly explain all the new skills they’d gained over the year to the new incoming leaders.
When I first met our current students, they were mostly quiet and certainly didn’t want to stick out too much in any situation. 12 months later they are a group of confident, compassionate, community leaders who will no doubt have an important impact on the world. The transition I’ve seen in all of them is truly inspirational.
I feel incredibly grateful that my colleague Kirstyn (who is overseas right now) saw a spark in me and recognised that I had something useful to share with these students. She also started this program so I’m standing on the shoulders of giants. 12 months ago, I never thought I’d be making an impact in the student leadership space. It would’ve been a completely foreign idea 21 years ago when I first moved to Oz.
Yet again, the universe aligns these events to show how far we’ve come. I’m only one year away from having lived more of my life in Australia than New Zealand which I always thought would be a tough realisation. As I find myself settling into this new found purpose of empowering young people, I don't think it will be as scary as it once could have been.
I’m so different from the ‘Jess’ who first moved to Australia. She was there but only at 20% opacity - I had no idea what I was capable of because I was so worried about standing out. I cared about what other people thought and I didn’t know that I had a voice worth listening to. When I’m working with our student leaders today, I’m sharing all the things young Jess would have benefited from.
Because the universe works in threes, I’m celebrating young Jess today by heading off to Good Things in Melbourne - an all day alternative, punk, rock and metal music festival. I’d brought a ticket months ago when I was cross at Matt for some reason - some kind of ‘fuck you! I’m going to a metal gig’ moment from memory. Completely by accident, this too has landed in my spontaneous week of celebrations.
It wraps things up beautifully as I reconnect with my head banging roots and to a time when going to gigs and partying was such a huge part of my life. It goes to show that little Jess is still there. I’ll just be rocking up with my backpack packed with a water bottle, fruit and some high protein snacks instead of trying to smuggle booze in. I have sunscreen and a hat and will be wearing comfy walking shoes and don’t give shit about what people think about me - that’s their business as Mum likes to say. Best of all, Tool is headlining at 8.15pm so hopefully I’ll be home before 11. Modern day Jess definitely needs 8 hours of sleep a night, especially after such a massive week!
