The Last Last Word
By Michael Crosson | Posted: Tuesday November 16, 2021
It’s a strange feeling to reach today, the end of the longest chapter in my life to date.
13 years of school all wrapped up in one short half day and assembly, and then after that into the big wide unknown. I think excitement, sadness, weariness and nervousness are all valid emotions at this point - I know that I’ve experienced all 4 today.
Today has been essentially one long, drawn out goodbye. I hope you’ve taken the chance and time to say goodbye, “see you soon” to staff and mates you know are heading off to a different part of the world. I hope you’ve taken time to look around, and remember the little things that make this school special to you. If you can’t find anything that does that, look a little harder, because they’re there. For me, OBHS was special for so many reasons - Duke of Ed tramps, Year 10 P.E, music in the auditorium, football in the quad, and the walk to school every morning for the past five years. These are personal to me and obviously won’t apply to everyone here it might not apply to anyone here. That doesn’t mean they matter less if anything, personal moments can matter more.
Reflecting on this though, I think that this school has shared moments, memories we can all relate to that form a strange, slightly hard to define ‘brotherhood’. Brotherhood is found in the trenches with your mates, your brothers. Standing on Littlebourne, for example, in the pissing-down rain, too cold to do anything but shiver, sneeze and chant. Suffering through that one class which everyone in the room hates, or heading off to an interschool in a jam packed bus. Brotherhood is formed when we share the same moment. Brotherhood is found when you take the chance to put yourself out there and connect with those around you, people your ‘social status’ limits you from normally connecting with. Brotherhood doesn’t cast judgement on who you are, it offers you the chance to form bonds, to form brothers. This is without a doubt the most special aspect of OBHS, and those who have experienced this ‘brotherhood’ will vouch for that. It’s not any scholarship, any award or achievement of any kind that sets this school apart. It’s not the castle we’re sitting in, the strength of our academic or sports teams. After all, at the end of the day how much do you personally care about these things? No, brotherhood is what can make this school different. It’s sad that it took me 5 years to truly understand this, it literally only hit me yesterday. Don’t let it take you 5 years too.
This school often feels like the best place in the world, or the most exhausting. It’s a school where best mates are found and worst enemies are formed, memories are kept for life or forgotten as quickly as possible, where we find our greatest achievements and lowest of lows. And yet despite these ups and downs in life, Otago Boys' won’t be a place I try to forget quickly.
Back in 2019 I had the privilege to hear Charlie Marsh’s moving last last word, where he perfectly summed up the mood of a departing Year 13 from this school. Because, this school, it does this weird thing where most of the time you’d rather be anywhere else and yet when the time comes to go, you don’t really want to. Close mates of mine will know that I’ve spent a lot of this year just looking forward to the end, to this very moment. And now that we’ve reached what I thought was ‘the goal’, I’ve realised this school isn’t about a journey with an end. At least, it shouldn’t be about the end. School should be about the pit stops along the way, the moments that stick in your memory. To you Year 11’s, 12’s, don’t get fixated on the end of your time at school. Appreciate the moments that pop up over your last few years. If you set your sights on finishing, on getting to the end as soon as possible then you throw away everything that can make high school important.
At the start of the year, I heard a phrase that I just knew belonged at the end of this speech. The phrase is this. “I wish there was a way of knowing you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” When I heard that, the realization came that high school will be, for a lot of us, the good old days. The days when responsibilities were low, expectations were high and life seemed so simple and straightforward. It may not feel like that all the time, but you can bet looking back it’ll be nothing but the good old days. High school is the last stop in our lives before we jump into the deep end. Year 12’s, Year 11’s, please please accept this and treat your final years at high school like they’re the good old days. Because they are. I am so glad I’ve spent five years at this school, and I’m going to miss them sorely.
