The Last Word
By Benjamin Richards | Posted: Sunday March 3, 2024
I’ll be honest with you, when faced with doing my last word this week, I found myself struggling for a topic to speak on.
At some point it's all been said, and when I was in Year 11 or 12 if I heard another one about goal setting or opportunities, I may not have come back for my Year 13.
Eventually I stumbled onto the topic of rest. Rest isn’t really a thing we talk about at OBHS. From day 1, period 1 the mindset is that we are working hard, hand up, take on the world, it’ll all be fine, just keep going. Now none of these things are wrong. As men we are made to work hard and succeed. Ideas I am proud that we uphold at OBHS.
However, as with all things there must be a balance. You can’t have day without night, and at night you really should be sleeping. Fellas I know it's dry, I’d rather be playing a few games, or headed out with my mates too. But let me tell you where that got me. In Year 11 I got burnt out. With school, with sport, all of it. I had spent Year 9 and 10 playing hard, but working harder.
I had goals and ambitions, there was always a better grade, another award, or recognition and that was what I was chasing. However as you all know, the workload as a junior simply doesn’t compare with your average senior’s. But as a naive Year 11 I didn’t know that. I thought it would all work out, I would get into the grind and good things would happen.
Up until the beginning of term 3 this went amazing. I was flying, my classes were great, sports were fun and I got up each morning knowing I was ready to take on the day. Then I hit a wall. I had been flat out for too long and it had caught up to me. In between my classes, exam prep, sports and social time, I was going to bed well into the morning every night for months, and one Monday morning it hit me like a truck.
I lay in my bed until I was late for school, wondering why I even bothered. Did school really matter? Where am I even going after school? Why should I get up?
This continued for some weeks, I was dragging myself out of bed, miserable that I had to go to school, or training. All the while I was going to sleep late, still trying to maintain the detrimental cycle of homework and fun.
Eventually it was my mum, knowing best as always, who told me. “Ben, you have to stop having such late nights. It’s not good for you. Go to bed.” And so I did. When I woke up the next morning, having got a full 8 hours, things seemed a little better. First period maths wasn’t making me angry, I was happy when meeting my mates, and the world seemed a little brighter.
Now you would think that upon realising that good rest = good days, that I would change my ways and recover my stride. But I didn’t, surprised at this new burst of energy, I used it to stay up late watching pointless videos for hours. The next day sucked. Eventually this cycle repeated enough to get the message through my head and I decided it was time to get some proper consistent rest.
It was like magic. I was back to where I was weeks before, I can’t emphasise this enough, but everything just went better for me. It's not rocket science boys, we just need our rest. Now this isn’t a cop out, don’t use this as an excuse to leave that homework untouched, or that email unread. Do your work, and live your life. Go out with the boys, play your games. But you have to balance it. If you have a late night out, the next day you have an early night. Spend the hour before bed reading, playing cards, or working on a project. This will settle your mind and make the sleep you do get just so much better.
Boys, I know I’m going on and on a bit. We all feel like we’re part of the 1% that can thrive on 4 hours every night. But for your sake just give it a crack for a few weeks, and watch your performance in the classroom, and on the sports field improve, trust me, it's worth it.
In famous OBHS fashion, I’ll finish with a quote from humanitarian and philosopher Ravi Shankar. “Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have.”
