The Last Word
By Hugo Barsby | Posted: Tuesday May 7, 2024
As OBs boys, we are privileged in many ways.
For our teachers who work tirelessly to get the best out of us, for the range of sports that we can pursue and excel in, and, believe it or not, for Year 10 camp.
We may not realise it but we are privileged, each one of us, to spend a week in the Matukituki Valley, surrounded by mountains, glaciers and a landscape you can’t find anywhere else in the world. The memories you make at camp are as special as any. I will never forget watching Alex La Hood chase sheep at Leadership Camp last year.
I think it's fair to say that there is nowhere to hide during a school camp. A week isolated in the bush, when there is often no one to rely on but yourself. For most of us, this is not too difficult, as we have lived in New Zealand for years and are comfortable with the people we are surrounded by. Although when I went to camp with 10G a couple of months ago, this was not the case for everyone.
Amongst the crowd of rowdy, anxious and excited Year 10s, was Shun, an exchange student from Japan, who had only been in New Zealand for a couple of months. Despite being unfamiliar with the boys he was with and the place he was going, Shun put his hand up to truly plunge himself in the unknown by spending a week at the OBs lodge with 10G. However, Shun embraced the challenges and demands, the highs and lows, and the reward and satisfaction of camp. In a foreign environment, with boys he hardly knew, speaking a language that he was still learning, Shun couldn’t be further from home, or his comfort zone. And yet, he stood in Wishbone Falls, swam through the Matukituki river, was polite to everyone around him, and just got stuck in.
Some of you may have heard of Russ Cook, or ‘the hardest geezer’ who recently completed running the entire length of Africa. He ran for 352 days across 16 countries, covering more than 16 thousand kilometres, or 385 marathons. Although this is at more of an extreme level, Russ Cook plunged himself in the unknown, just like Shun. Why? Because they want to grow as individuals and learn about themselves and what they are truly capable of.
Boys, without pushing yourself past what you think you are capable of, without daring to be uncomfortable, and without putting your hand up to do something far from your ‘normal’, you will never grow. You can only chase but will never reach your true potential, which will lurk ahead of you like a shadow. Shun may never see Rob Roy glacier, may never kayak and may never build dams again.
But at least he can say ‘I did it’.
To finish, I will quote Shun. With his polite nature, he always sang out ‘thank you'. Maybe for the marshmallows he tasted by the campfire one night, maybe for the starry night sky he can’t see back home, or perhaps he was thanking himself. For putting his hand up, stepping into the unknown, and being the truest OBs boy one could be.
