Year 13 Deans - Their Hopes and Aspirations

Year 13 Deans

Their Hopes and Aspirations

In a Year Thirteen Leader’s Meeting, soon after we returned from lockdown, we joked that a good slogan for the class of 2020 should be “Sad and Cancelled.” We laughed together as we imagined it emblazoned across leavers jerseys and integrated into the cover artwork for Trek, our school magazine. It was a compact sentiment, said in jest, that momentarily masked the bitter truth of the loss our leaders were feeling. Field trips, talent quest and sports fixtures; trips to China, Chile and Japan, the fruit of four years of working hard had all suddenly disappeared. It had vanished into the mist of an even pithier sentiment, expressed by our Prime Minister, “Unprecedented.”

They say ‘Hindsight is always 2020’ and as more of 2020 became hindsight our wonderful leaders began to see the year with more clarity, and thanks somewhat to their proactive leadership there were many rights of passage that were not sad or cancelled. The talent quest moved online, the sports fixtures thinned out and stayed local and unlike many schools across the country, we held a school ball that will go down in Oats history as one of its best!

I was Seventh Form (Year 13) in 1999, which means I finished school a millennia ago. It also means I have some understanding of what it feels like to head off into an adult world where talk of apocalyptic chaos was frontpage news. In 1999 ‘they’ thought that all the computers in the world were going to crash when their internal dates changed to “2000.” It was thought that a worldwide computer implosion was going to drive us all back to the dark ages.

“Y2K” has long since been relegated to the answer to a question in a millennial pub quiz, but at the time I know at least one bright-eyed teenager who felt a strange combination of anxious and hopeful about his burgeoning adulthood arriving at the frontier of some new challenge for humanity. for you, the class of 2020. You are heading out into a world that is not the same as the one your parents grew up in. It’s a world where people cough into their elbows. Like your parents told tales of cassette tapes and dial-up internet you will have to explain what a plastic straw was and maybe more serious things like chain stores and internal combustion engines. There is a heaviness and anxiety about your generation that I know you feel. But I hope you feel the aspirational hopefulness that we Millenials felt and that Baby Boomers and Generation X’ers felt despite the cold war.

One of my favourite quotes is from Poet, Robert Bly, “Your first mortal wound is the wellspring of your genius,” an idea more simply expressed by C.S Lewis, “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” This is, I hope, a truth that is in the process of being realised in you as you make your way into this heavy, but hopeful world.

Locked in their house, sick of their family and out of decent things to watch on Netflix, some students found that they

were capable of disciplining themselves effectively to study online, in fact, could achieve much more in less time than in class. Some students were better learners after COVID-19.

Locked in their house, sick of their family, dreading the cancellation of the school ball, some dreamed up new ideas that might have otherwise been lost in the noise. One student even made it to national news for her ball gown rental initiative. Some students were more innovative after COVID - 19.

Locked in their house, sick of their family and feeling isolated from their friends across Tauranga. Many students became more aware that all humans are social animals and more alert to the needs of those less fortunate than them. They became more compassionate, more proactive in trying to help and support each other. Some students were more kind after COVID -19.

This year, as sometimes sad, and sometimes cancelled as it has been, has also seen you scratch the surface of your genius and realise just an inkling of your potential. So now, with 2020 in the rearview mirror, go out there, realise your genius and discover your extraordinary destiny.

Josh Buxton - Year 13 Dean To have our final year of College in 2020 could have caused despondency among us; we had so many plans that we wanted to enact as it was finally our chance to be the leaders of the school. The year that has such beautiful number symmetry had other ideas, but we rolled with it - a testament to the attitude that has pervaded our cohort since the start of 2016. It has been so exciting to see how you have responded to the challenges that the last year, and the four before that, have thrown.

Any situation can be a positive one if you want to see it as such. We have had plenty of ‘situations’ over our time together and sometimes the outcome has not been what we have wished for. I hope that you have learned, as I have, that figuring out the motivation behind an action or decision is a crucial aspect in developing maturity. In the circumstances where events were unavoidable, we have rallied together. The support and encouragement that you have given each other, and me, will forever be part of my memory bank.

From here on, I have a great hope for you all. I hope that you can continue to draw on inner strength to find the necessary fortitude and skill to chase your dreams, but be flexible enough to change your course if it is needed. A successful person is someone who understands themselves and is able to be empathetic to others; reflect on yourself each day and check in with your friends. Give of your best but do not focus solely on work - it is one part of yourself. For me, the most important thing is to be able to communicate clearly with people, through both words and deeds. So, smile at the person on the street and tell your friends you love them. I hope that you find joy in the unusual as well as the mundane, and I hope that your life will have spontaneity as well as calculated risks. I

HOPE that your life is filled with learning - in all ways - never stop learning! And above all, have fun.

You are ending a phase of your life, but it is just the beginning. Remember where you came from, but do not peak now! Build on the foundation of your College years and take the equation Action + Attendance + Attitude = Success to the world! And, always remember to treat people with kindness.

Kim Whyte - Year 13 Dean