Assistant Principal (Secondary)

Confessions of a coffee addict

I was fortunate to be a child in the time where caffeinated drinks were not constantly fed to us from a young age. My slow steady decline into coffee addiction did not happen until I was in my 30’s. For me, drinking coffee was necessity (or so I thought). My wife and I had a new born baby and I was working long hours. Now I (unfortunately) consider myself addicted. If I have not had a coffee by 12pm, I know that I’m going to have that pounding feeling of an oncoming headache. A feeling that I all too often cover by having increasingly more coffee. 

I recently was listening to a health podcast and was amazed to find that caffeine is not necessarily the stimulant I thought it to be. I was shocked to realise that caffeine does not give me a fresh buzz of energy; rather, it blocks depressants in my brain. It gives the false feeling of energy by blocking a chemical that causes drowsiness: adenosine. 

Thinking that I ‘need’ a coffee to feel better is not necessarily chemical/physical, rather it’s psychological. I’ve linked energy with coffee. The power of my thoughts has influenced the way I conducted my life; even if my thoughts are based on a false narrative - such is the power of our minds.  

As we move out of lockdown, I believe it’s important to examine (or to re-examine) our thoughts in terms of our capacity. Each of us have lived the last two years with a restricted capacity. Living in this space can give us a false narrative - that our capacity is not large, which in turn, has influences on our beliefs and the way we act. 

As a school, we feel it's important that the students understand that they are often far more capable  and have a much larger capacity than they believe. Much of a student’s self-talk can often follow the path of a false narrative; one that says they’re stupid, dumb, ugly and useless, etc. This type of self-talk has (all too often) increased over the past two years. As we continue to emerge from a lockdown mindset, I believe it’s important that we impart a narrative that builds students' confidence, capabilities and capacity. 

Writing this has taken a bit of time, I’m now feeling tired - so I think I ‘need’ a coffee?! 

Mr Chris Graham

Assistant Principal (Secondary)