Follow Your Passion

There is no doubt that 2021 has been a year that has challenged us yet again, putting into stark contrast the areas in our lives that might be failing us or preventing us from reaching a true state of happy purposefulness. In this issue of Spectemur, we look at how passion can shape one’s pathways and offer fulfillment throughout life. Here, students and staff share their passion stories, from life-affirming hobbies to shaping future careers.

Flying High: Alexander Guorgi

YEAR 12

I am that person who always looks up at the sound of an overpassing aircraft and identifies what sort of aircraft it is. My Dad, being on his own journey to obtaining a private pilot’s licence (PPL), definitely exposed me to aviation from a young age. I had always loved the idea of being able to hop in a plane and travel anywhere I desired, with no boundaries or limitations. From flight lessons to learning radio calls and reading weather systems, the aviation world intrigued me further and further the more I learned about how it worked.

Enrolling in an Aviation VET course through the school at the beginning of Year 11 (2020) was where I began to learn the basics of aerodynamics and how planes operate. My flight training is currently completed with Tristar Aviation located at Moorabbin Airport, where flights such as circuits around the airport and skills training, located further south above Carrum, take place. We fly in Cessna 152s engaging in drills such as how to recover from spiral dives and what to do if you have engine failure. This teaches you the basics to fly on your own and will ultimately lead to obtaining a Recreational Pilot’s Licence (RPL). Progressing further for me will entail navigational flights and instrument flight (IFR) as you learn to travel from point A to point B while enabling you to fly during night time. This allows you to then get your Private Pilot’s Licence (PPL). It’s then on to a Commercial Pilot’s Licence (CPL) and Aviators Transport Pilot’s Licence (ATPL), which both enable you to be paid for flying and carry a significantly larger amount of people in larger aircrafts.

In an ideal world, a future career in aviation for me will hopefully be flying for airlines on international flights while simultaneously being able to travel the world. However, this requires an enormous amount of time spent in the cockpit along with many exams and ratings. In order to be recognised by major airlines, a solid number of hours and skill level is required. I may, however, find myself on other paths such as applying for the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), as there are many career opportunities to fly there as well.

The Accidental Musician: Dr Paul Hicks

HEADMASTER

Like many adults I speak to, I regret not learning an instrument when I was young. My viola journey began about three years ago when I was challenged to join a Music School initiative for all music teachers to learn a new instrument. I was given the viola, an instrument I knew very little about, though I soon discovered that there is a whole world of ‘viola jokes’ out there.

I was lucky enough to be assigned to Ms Lisa Grossman as my teacher and was lent a viola and bow. I learnt very quickly that this was difficult. As Lisa taught me, I had to learn both the viola and the bow, and if I had any chance of making a nice sound I had to get both to work together. She has shown great patience and empathy as bit by bit I began to learn.

Learning a difficult new skill is a humbling experience. I am used to being the teacher and knowing my subject and how to teach it well. I now had to accept that I had to go slowly, and that I would not be sounding ‘good’ for a long time. I had to push my ego down and become vulnerable again. Learning to play a string instrument takes time, and progress is slow. I had to train my body to do new things, and I learned that even if my brain wanted to do something, my fingers would not necessarily follow my brain’s instruction. It is difficult, and it made me appreciate how hard it can be to master something which does not come easily, and how important persistence is if you want to get better.

It would have been very easy to give up, and sometimes I am still tempted to give up, but I am curious to see how far I can take it. And I have fallen in love with the daily time out of playing and practising and slowly, slowly, getting a little bit better.

It was a great thrill for me to finally be welcomed into our Junior School Orchestra and to play alongside other students who are on their own learning journey. Playing in an orchestra is another brand-new skill and it too is difficult, requiring focus and discipline – and the courage to try, and to make mistakes. I now also play with the Middle School Orchestra, and I am even trying some of the Senior School’s pieces – though, in all honesty, they are a bit beyond me.

As we grow older, we drift towards the things we are good at, and the things we feel most comfortable with. Learning something new is a challenge, and it is confronting to face something we are not good at. I am so grateful to my teacher for encouraging me, and believing that I can do it. As I learn this new thing, I also gain better insight into being a student again, and I have a deeper understanding of the challenges facing our students when they try to learn something new and difficult. And I am also reminded of the joy and satisfaction that appears when a breakthrough is made.

Playing the viola was never a secret passion of mine; I fell into it almost accidentally. I have become passionate, however, by doing it. Recently I began learning a movement from a Bach cello suite transcribed for the viola – how cool is that?

Online Entrepreneur: William Cook

YEAR 12

My passion for building businesses started back in primary school where I enjoyed creating cool projects and getting my friends to test them. I remember building a website where you could practise your Italian, as that was the LOTE I learnt. From there my passion for entrepreneurship grew. Over the next few years, I ran a range of other businesses, none of them had customers but it was the thrill and grind that I really loved. One business that I spent many years on was called WC Freelancing which I started with some friends from CGS around the middle of Year 7 and we made quite a bit of headway. We had a few clients, as well as a behind-the-scenes project we almost built that we had proposed to Mr Wyatt, who had really liked the idea.

Now I run Advertise Your Server (AYS). Midway through Year 8 was when I joined AYS, a community/business that provides advertising/marketing services to online communities. We were quite small back then and were only a Discord community, with a few hundred members. But things quickly took off from there. We expanded at quite a rapid rate, quickly gaining new members.

Around April of 2018, I took over as the owner of AYS, as the previous owner could no longer dedicate the time needed to run the community. Nowadays, we have over 65,000 members across the four platforms we run, those being Discord, Reddit, Gaming and Discord Bots. We also have a staff team made up of volunteers and paid team members of around 70 who help run the community from marketing/sales to trust and safety.

As the Chief Executive Officer, I have a lot on my plate day-to-day. It can get quite tricky at times, especially being in Year 12, to plan out my time effectively. Usually, I start my day around 6.00am and work for an hour or so on AYS. At school, I like to keep my time strictly to schoolwork only, but I do check during my breaks to see if there are any issues in the day-to-day operations. Generally, after I’ve done my homework, I will hop on to deal with things that have come up throughout the day, such as approvals for projects and questions that I only know the answer to. Generally, on the weekends is when we get together as a team and work on new projects. I hope to be able to either study part-time or take a gap year next year to keep running AYS and I am excited to see where the company will take me.

Synthesizing Sound: Stirling Martin

YEAR 8

I love music, especially electronic music, and have a passion for collecting synthesizers and drum machines. A synthesizer (or a synth) is an instrument that electronically generates and modifies sounds. A synthesizer can make an infinite number of sounds, they can emulate instruments like horns, strings, percussion and also sounds that aren’t instrumental, creating sounds that are completely electronic. I first became aware of synthesizers when I started listening to Daft Punk and other electronic musicians. Then, on my thirteenth birthday, my parents got me the Korg Minilogue. I have since collected a Behringer TD3 (which is a clone of the Roland TB303 but more affordable), a Behringer RD8 (which is also a clone but of the TR808 drum machine which you would have heard on Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody), and the Korg NTS1. Out of all my instruments, the Korg Minilogue is my favourite – it has a very cool metallic sound. I also love mixing music and the artists I like and like to mix are Daft Punk, Justice and Cassius, to name a few.

We are lucky to have a not-for-profit organisation MESS (Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio) in Melbourne that promotes electronic music by letting people use electronic instruments old and new. MESS has a wide variety of electronic instruments both loaned and donated, one of these donors is the famous musician Gotye, who has donated all his drum machines and synths to MESS. I attended an open day at MESS where I was able to use many classic, and now very expensive, instruments. Some of the instruments were the Korg MS-20 (which was used on the song Da Funk by Daft Punk), the Moog system 55 (which featured in Wendy Carlos’ album Switched on Bach and launched the synthesizer into the public), and the Roland Jupiter 8 (which featured on Michael Jackson’s Thriller).

Synthesizers are great for everyone, you don’t need a musical background, anyone can experiment with the sounds a synth creates. It’s lots of fun. I hope to continue with sound design in the future.

Technologies of the Past: Mr Michael Daniel

HEAD OF EAL AND OVERSEAS STUDENTS COORDINATOR

My interest in vintage and antique objects began when I was a child and I have a particular interest in gadgets that embody the technology of the past. My collection includes objects as diverse as slide rules – which were used for mathematical calculations prior to the advent of scientific calculators – valve radios, and manual adding machines.

I also have a particular interest in propelling pencils and fountain pens. Being a teacher, not a day goes by without me using a fountain pen to correct work or write notes, and a pencil to annotate textbooks. Whilst most of the fountain pens I use are relatively modern ones, my favourite pens are a Marbie Todd pen made in about 1946, and a Parker Zephyr made in the late 1930s. Another benefit in collecting them is that, unlike some of the other objects I collect, pens and pencils are more compact.

The items in my collection are not particularly valuable – I collect them for their interest value. The only condition I set myself is that all the items in my collection are used. The fascination for me with collecting is in learning about the development of the item – who invented it, what the brands and models were, and the social history associated with the objects. There is also the satisfaction in being able to repair, or get working again, an item that does not work when I acquire it.

Recently, I have begun to collect typewriters when I found a discarded one in the neighbourhood. Being one of the last batch of students to do their ten-finger typing training on a manual machine, using my 1929 Remington Model 2 machine which a retired English teacher kindly gave to me earlier this year, has proven a fun way for me to type up correspondence to people who do not have access to emails. It also generated considerable interest amongst the student body when it was taken into the library.