The Last Word

By Osasa Nielson-Caldwell | Posted: Tuesday July 5, 2022

Morning boys. As I stand before you today, I ask that you think about the word “expectations”.

What it means to you, the person next to you, or the person in front of you. The word is honestly daunting, “expectations” genuinely makes me nervous. When I think of the word, I figure it means that you must perform to certain criteria without failure. Now recently I’ve been very sick and expectations are still set in place. Internals, chores, study, and commitments like sports or work. Apparently, it gets more difficult as we get older. Yet I am currently struggling right now, adding stress to the pile. It gets to the point where it’s unbearable. You want to give up and give in. You want to look in the other direction and hope that it would just go away. You want to stay where you can forget. Truthfully that would be my same reaction, yet the word “expectations” nags me in a constant way. I have had to change the way I look at this word and turn it into something productive. It makes me think about what others would think of me. Especially my family. They have high hopes for me and a common response would be to not let them down.

Now I vividly remember in Year 9 there was a history project with groups. I was paired with my boys and I got a not achieved because I was slack and unprepared. I was hoping that the other boys did the work just like they thought I would. We presented a half empty sheet of paper, written on the spot while others were presenting theirs. Yes, I would be embarrassed to fail a project that I spent time on, but even more so, not try and repeat what I did in Year 9. I hated this feeling and never wanted to feel like this again.

As an OBHS boy, it’s a privilege to represent this name, especially going on tournaments outside of school. Again, it is an expectation to act like an OBHS boy. Expectations don't just have to be set in the classroom, they can range into a wide variety of things. So again, I ask another question, what do expectations look like? What is expected of the person on your left versus the person on your right? Are they the same? Or are they different? Now I have given you my thoughts on the word. I would like to have a go in finding the definition of expectation of an Otago Boys' boy. My answer is; simply to be able to do the right thing. Now I don’t want to stand here speaking like a lecturer and continue telling you what to do and what not to do but I ask that you hear me. Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing but it will always be expected for an OBs boy. The expected values and morals are what in my opinion define an OBHS boy.

In the traditional Otago Boys' manner, I will finish with a quote. “Meeting expectations is good, exceeding expectations is better.”