Those future dreams we had at secondary school

 Hi there

When I started in the third form at Wellington East Girls' College, way back in the late 1950s, the teacher asked the students what job they wanted when they left school.  She began to work her way around the room.  "Daphne-?"

Daphne perked up.  "I'm going to be a hairdresser," she announced confidently.

"Margaret?"

"I want to be a hairdresser."

"Julia?"

"Hairdresser."

"What about you, Valerie?"

"I'm going to be a model."  Valerie was topping out at 4ft 11 inches.  The class doubted her modelling dream would happen.  But daphne's declaration had jogged a few other third form minds.

"I want to be a model, too," said another girl.

And another.

The rest all wanted to be hairdressers.

Noone mentioned typing as a profession, even though we were all in a Commercial class.

Me?  I stood out.  "I'm going to be a librarian," I said.  Goodness, I loved reading.  

In the end, I only knew one young lady from my class who took up hairdressing.  She lasted four months as an apprentice but was caught sleeping in the breakroom and fired instantly.

No-one ended up a model.

I became a typist.  (read this blog for periodic episodes about my "Typist in Charge" career).  I figured most of us, if not all, ended up as typists.

However, as a sideline, I did manage to get dozens of plays, poems, and stories accepted by The School Journal, and plays, stories and a romcom series broadcast over Radio New Zealand.  I wrote articles and stories for magazines, newspapers, and anthologies.

All thanks to Mrs Heely, my fourth form english teacher who had asked every individual class member to write a play about The Pied Piper of Hamelin.  She loved my rendition.  She sparked a love in me for writing.

Later on, in my thirties, I worked in Government Buildings.  I met Mrs Heely in the lift and told her about my work for The School Journal. She was tickled pink over my success.  She was working up the road at The Correspondence School, and we kept in touch...

above:  this design was on the pocket of our dark blue school blazers. In my day, we also had the school motto inscribed there, in Latin:  "lumen accipe et imperti"  It translates as "take the light and pass it on".  A good motto but not, I feel, as good as my one from Manukau Intermediate in Auckland's Royal Oak which was "Learn By Doing".  

The WEGC above design was on the Old Girls' Association metal badge, which for some obscure reason I still have.