Letter to students on the occasion of new school year 2017-2018

Ho Chi Minh City, August 17, 2017

Dear beloved VAS students,

It is a great pleasure to welcome all of you to a new and exciting academic year of 2017 - 2018.  I hope all of you had a great summer with your families and are ready, excited to see all your teachers and friends again. For all of you who are new to VAS a very warm welcome, and I hope you will soon make new friends.  This year many interesting opportunities will arise in your new journey at VAS and these will hopefully translate into milestones and achievement for all of you as VAS students.

When I was a young, there were many such opportunities and one event I remember well is the painting exhibition at my school. More than 40 years ago, in many areas of the world, there were many struggles, some are still the same; feminism, class, ethnicity, bullying etc. The paintings that many of my fellow pupils created brought the importance of harmony, equality and love to all of human kind via these innocent simple pictures. Even at my young age I realized that it was not too early to do something starting with myself!

There will be another painting contest this year, and I hope some of you will compete and use it as a means of raising issues and promote discussion and express yourselves.

Some of the discussions about these subjects sounded vague and really confusing then. I just shared more with my parents and teachers what I was thinking. I sincerely listened to their advice, even if it was against my own opinion but this helped me gradually to clarify many things and form my own beliefs. Since that time my choices have been based on my personal beliefs and the guidance of my loved ones.

On your paths, there will be need to pause to look back and decide a forward direction. There will be many options in your minds and advice from others, but I hope that our VAS students, regardless of age, will consider:

Choose Courage! Be brave to give own opinions respectfully, to face the challenges, to overcome failure, to stay awake when being successful and to love your family wherever you are.

Choose Difference! Difference is not to be perfect but to respect yourself as you are and others as they are, respect and look for beauty in a variety of things. This will help you integrate with many cultures when you step into this complex world and see beauty in all things.

Choose Leading Your Life! Take ownership of your thoughts, attitudes and actions for your future to ensure you have no regrets when you look back in a month, next year or in 10 or 50 years.

Choose wisely what and how to do it, both to make yourself proud, your parents and family. Study hard, work hard and enjoy your learning!

Dream!

Like most of you, I dreamed a lot when I was young and there is nothing wrong when we dream about something that seems crazy in the eyes of the adults or others. Our dreams will change quite a lot upon our journey of growing up but only through applying ourselves can we become brave enough to make our dreams come true. Because dreams are hard work to realize.

I wish you a great start to this academic year and wish you courage to keep growing up, to become the person you love. I wish you courage to remain true to yourself and not change your unique self. I am sure that you will listen to, accept the support and help from your family and teachers to make that happen.

My wish is that you always have a loving childhood and a youth full of vivid experience. And I feel very fortunate to be able to create a place where you can remember many unforgettable moments!

Let’s have fun, learn and grow at VAS!

Yours sincerely,

Marcel van Miert

Executive Chairman – Vietnam Australia International School