The one thing these HSC English Extension stars have in common

The most important lesson Ryan Jones, Charlotte Tan and Olivia Maietta learnt during the HSC didn’t come from a maths textbook. It wasn’t drawn from the pages of Shakespeare or drilled into them during physics lessons. 

The most important lesson Ryan Jones, Charlotte Tan, and Olivia Maietta learnt during the HSC didn’t come from a maths textbook. It wasn’t drawn from the pages of Shakespeare or drilled into them during physics lessons. 

For these three students, the most important lesson was over pots of tea and Chinese Chicken Soup and memories of state terror.

The trio dedicated their English Extension Major work to their grandparents’ lives. In doing so, they learnt more about themselves than any textbook has ever taught them. 

They are three of nineteen of the state’s top writers from the 2023 HSC cohort, and now they are published authors, with their work having been printed in the Young Writers Showcase Anthology. 

Ryan wrote a creative nonfiction piece exploring his grandfather’s migration from Croatia to Australia, intertwined with memories from Ryan’s own life. For Ryan, this was a moment of introspection.

It was the closest he had ever felt to his own Croatian heritage. He learnt about his grandfather’s sacrifice in moving to Australia. 

“As I progressed through the course, the writing process became far more than simply stringing together words on a page,” he said.

“It became a quest for answers, a manifestation of my journey in search of cultural identification, inciting deep self-reflection about my conflicted cultural identity and forcing me to finally confront the confusion that had plagued my teenage years.”

He writes about this sacrifice and disconnects in his piece.

“My Deda risked his social status, his family’s safety, and his own life to flee Yugoslavia and build the incredibly privileged lives my family and I have in Australia today, but it came at an irreversible cost,” Ryan said. 

“First, Mirko became Mike, then Simunic became Sim-yoo-nick. Balkan spices disappeared from the cupboard, Croatian proverbs were exchanged for Australian ones, and Church visits dwindled from once a week to once a month. 

“It’s simpler to just conform to the expectations of Eurocentrism than to constantly correct pronunciations or spend an hour and a half travelling for a single tin of vegeta, 

“My identity is continuously being reshaped and moulded by the delicate interactions of my Croatian heritage and Australian society, but this change is the only true constant in my search for satisfaction in my relationship with my heritage.

“Perhaps, instead of fighting this constant cultural negotiation, I’m better off simply embracing it for what it is. Seeing my Deda’s joyful acceptance of life, the inevitable shifting of identity and inclusion of the new, I have come to appreciate that there is no gain without loss.”

Grandparents are often longed for after they are gone. When it’s too late to collect their words and stories. Time, as valuable as it is, is hard to make. Even more so when you are an HSC student. 

But these three students in NSW have something special – they know their grandparents will live on forever. First in this HSC major work and now in a published book. 

It was a chance for Charlotte Tan to explore her relationship with her Chinese grandmother. The student created a suite of poems titled Chrysalis. She captures her grandmother’s failing memory in them, as it crumbles to Alzheimers. 

“You cannot make chicken soup anymore / The caregiver replaces your hands,” she wrote. 

“​​Ai Ling, you’ve forgotten how to make it and I’ve forgotten how to love you a woman so fragmented that the nooks and crannies of your own body are secrets of the deep, blue unknown.”

The words, haunting and beyond her years, capture how her relationship with her grandmother has been impacted by memory. 

“People are drawn to their grandparent’s stories because they are wiser and older. We all have unique grandparents. I was drawn to my grandmother because she plays a vital role in my life,” Charlotte said.

“She taught me to cherish all the memories, even the bad ones. Everyone who lives in our memories is very valuable, even if they are not the best memories, because they teach you life lessons. 

“They teach you how to make mistakes and how to recover from those mistakes. 

“She taught me to cherish food. She taught me how to bond with my culture and understand each other through foods such as Chinese Pancakes. 

“I always felt a bit insecure of my heritage, being born in Australia. I never learned how to speak Mandarin or Chinese. And my parents, they never really talked in their mother tongue.” 

“I felt insecure about where I was from. This piece really helped me to come to terms with that. That identity and culture are so much more than just speaking in a mother tongue. 

“I am really grateful for this process because it has helped me bond with so much more than I had learned.”

For Olivia, whose work explores the heart-wrenching story of her Argentinian grandparents amid the turbulent backdrop of 1975, just prior to the military dictatorship coup, the writing process helped her understand her own history. 

Olivia grapples with the “What ifs” of her family’s decision to migrate. She contemplates how different her life would be if her grandparents had not made the brave choice to leave Argentina.

“I based the story on my grandma. The difference in what I heard from her versus what I had heard in the media was quite different,” she said.

“I consulted with her about the details, she thought it was quite cool I had put it into words. I think the people that come before us in our family history shape our lives. 

“I didn’t realise how widespread her experience was. Most of our family had been held at gunpoint, but obviously, you don’t hear everyone’s accounts of what had happened. You just hear very exceptional stories. 

“I learnt the importance of understanding each individual’s experience and not generalising it.” 

“Sometimes we can get really frustrated with our family, especially our grandparents because we think they are behind the times.

“But I think it is important to know who they are and where they come from.”